Welcome to the Australian Bush Poets Association
WELCOME. Membership of the Australian Bush Poets Association (ABPA) is comprised of writers, performers
and individuals who are interested in bush poetry and enjoy written and live stories in rhyme and metre. If
you have an interest in this piece of Australian culture called bush poetry, you have come to the right place.
Aims
The objectives of the Australian Bush Poets Association are to foster and encourage the growth of bush poetry
in Australia. By definition, Australian bush poetry is metred and rhymed poetry about Australia, Australians
and/or the Australian way of life.
Membership
To join the Australian Bush Poets Association and receive our bi-monthly magazine, go to our Membership page.
The ABPA keeps in touch with its members through this website (and forum) and our bi-monthly
magazine of bush poetry news, events, results of written and performance competitions as well as samples of contemporary
bush poetry. Many members have books, CDs and other products. These can be advertised in the magazine. For rates,
click here. The deadline for ads and other content for the magazine is the 22nd
of the month preceding publication. Magazines are published at the beginning of February, April, June, August, October and
December.
Check out our
Facebook page.
2024 Tenterfield Oracles of the Bush Festival
The Yellow Shirt volunteers and professional performers close the Tenterfield Oracles of the Bush event.
Newly-awarded Lifetime ABPA member, Marion Fitrzgerald, encouraged students to perform at the Oracles competitions
through workshops at schools prior to the big event.
A bittersweet Tenterfield Oracles Of The Bush 2024. Sell-out crowds and their biggest ever lineup, was soured by the
fact that after twenty seven years, they were pulling up stumps.
A remarkable run by a purely boutique Bush Poetry Festival, and leaving behind a wonderful lineup of past winners of the
Looming Legends Performance Competition as well as a Who’s Who of local inductees into the Oracles Legends Hall Of Fame.
Sadly, weather came to thwart the weekend and the traditional opening, the Bush Poets Breakfast, was moved from Bruxner
Park to the Showground Pavilion, as was the Friday Night Campfire Yarns and the Sunday Breakfast in the Park. All other
events went ahead as scheduled.
The Bush Poetry fraternity and the town of Tenterfield should be extremely proud of what they have achieved for Bush Poetry
in those twenty seven years, and the Oracles were the first Bush Poetry Festival to reemerge after the Covid days and put
Poets back on the stage after a couple of years absence. And all through the tireless work of the Yellow Shirts, Tenterfield’s
Volunteer Brigade!
The work put in by this group over the years has been phenomenal and to have events in Paul Petrie’s barn (pictured above) once more, took the memories back a long way.
With the Bush Poetry Troupe of (l to r) Bill Kearns, myself, Melanie Hall, Marco Gliori, Susan Carcary, Gary Fogarty, Kylie Castle
(muso), Greg North and Ray Essery, it was great to see sold-out concerts, lunches and breakfasts.
It started with the Welcome Dinner at the Transport Museum on the Thursday Night. Friday saw the Lion’s Club Brekkie, the Children’s
Concert and Competition then the first heats of the Looming Legends competition and campfire yarns.
Saturday had Poets Breakfasts at the Tenterfield Golf Club, The Tenterfield Motor Inn and at Paul Petrie’s Barn, all sell outs. Lunch
shows were full at Paul’s Barn, Arajay Downs, the Ivy Chapel and the Tenterfield Transport Museum. Next up was the second heats of the
Looming Legends and then the major event, The Saturday Night Poet’s Concert, a night or laughter, tears, reminiscing and catching up.
Sunday Morning Poetry In The Park was again moved indoors and for the last time, the Walk-Up Poets battled it out in the One Minute Cup,
fighting for this year’s Trophy, a metal rain gauge (which was handmade and donated by Paul Petrie). The winner was 92-year-old Melba Austin
who wrote her poem on toilet paper!
Winner of the Looming Legends 2024 Competition of Oracles of the Bush, Lara Flanagan, pictured with 2015 Legend Perry Condrick.
The Looming Legends Competition was one of the most closely fought yet, but it was the Ladies triumphing,
with local, Lara Flanagan, taking out both sections. She defeated Claire Reynolds in the Previously Published Section and Debby Berryman in
the Original Section. Debby Berryman also took out the Audience Award for most popular performance of the Oracles with here rendition of
Milton Taylor’s ‘The Saga Of Cecil’.
So sadly, another era comes to a close, but the memories left behind by the Oracles of the Bush, has forever put Tenterfield into the heart
of Australian Bush Poetry.
Macpoet (Neil McArthur).
See full results here.
Victorian State Championships at The Man From Snowy River Festival
The winners.
Poets on parade.
The Man From Snowy River Bush Festival in Corryong, Victoria, once again hosted the Victorian State Championships of Bush Poetry.
See full results here.
Past Magazines now online
The historic magazines of the ABPA from its inception in 1994 are now available here. See how we used to look!
See previously featured poets.
See previously featured achievers.
Anthology On Sale
Anthology of ABPA poets past and present is now on sale $28
posted (within Australia).
A who’s who of modern bush poetry.
62 poets, 192 pages.
More information here (pdf).
On This Site
Membership Information
Forms and direct deposit information.
Forum
Take part in our online forum.
Multimedia
See and hear some of our modern Bush Poets.
Yarn Spinning
Poets often tell yarns too.
Read some great Aussie yarns.
Regular Events
You’ll find regular poetry gatherings around the country.
Featured Poets
Meet a poet or two.
Member Achievements
Read about what some of our members have achieved.
Roll of Honour
Australian Bush Poetry Champions and ABPA executive members.
Past Magazines
Past issues of the ABPA Magazine since 1994.
Magazine Advertising Rates
Disclaimer
Privacy Policy
2024 ABPA Committee
- ABPA Committee Executive
President — Tim Sheed
Vice President — David Stanley
Secretary — Meg Gordon
Treasurer — Christine Middleton - Committee Members
Tom McILveen
Manfred Vijars
Ray Essery - ABPA State Delegates
NSW — Bill Kearns
Victoria — Jan Lewis
Queensland — Peter Frazer
WA — Irene Conner - Magazine Editor — Neil McArthur
Public Officer — Gregory North
Facebook Editor — Jan Lewis
Webmaster — Gregory North
President’s Report April - May ’24
The Australian Bush Poets Association membership currently
stands at 138 with people still paying for their subscriptions.
A member of the association submitted a notice of motion to
the the AGM advocating a number of changes to the organization
that were discussed but not adopted at the meeting as
members believed that a number of the options had been
previously explored and found to be unwieldy and impractical
to implement. The committee is still evaluating these ideas and
are pleased that members are thinking of ways to improve how
we promote bush poetry as an art form.
The committee are currently evaluating a series of rubrics for
judges to use in scoring contestants in bush poetry competitions
for both performance poetry and written competitions. It
is hoped that this set of criteria will be valuable in providing
better feedback for participants to allow them to improve
performance.
The Oracles Of the Bush weekend is coming up in early April in
Tenterfield and then The Man From Snowy River Festival, incorporating
the Victorian Bush Poetry Competition in Corryong
from the 11th to 14th of April.
Later in the year Western Australia are holding State Championships
and the Victorian Bush Poets will be holding a Muster in
Tolmie, more to follow.
Please use the ABPA website to remain informed of upcoming
events and results of past events.
Timothy Sheed
President.