While The Billy BoilsSearch
A blackened billy steaming over a small fire beneath gum trees at dusk

Australia's home of bush poetry

While the
billy boils.

Read 984 poems by 33 poets—Australia's bush poetry, preserved and shared.

Start with a classic →Browse all poems

Poem of the day

Song of the Axe

Marie E. J. Pitt · 1911

A song for the sword! where the red blood poured
An oblation to earthly glory;
They have pledged its name to eternal fame,
In the pages of song and story.…
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New to bush poetry?

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Twelve poems that open different doors into Australian bush poetry.

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The great bush legends

Storytelling, movement and the romantic bush

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Start with a great ride

The Man From Snowy River

A. B. Paterson · 1890→

For the city–country divide

Clancy of the Overflow

A. B. Paterson · 1889→

For rivalry turned into legend

The Geebung Polo Club

A. B. Paterson · 1893→

For confidence at full speed

Mulga Bill's Bicycle

A. B. Paterson · 1896→

For the movement of station life

The Cattle Muster

G. H. Gibson · 1878→

For memory made into folklore

The Old Bush School

John O’Brien · 1921→

For a life lived on the road

The Swagman

C. J. Dennis · 1921→

For the moment the country changes

The Breaking of the Drought

Jack Moses · 1923→

For solitude at the edge of the run

The Boundary Rider

Thomas William Heney · 1918→

Hard country, human lives

Compassion, hardship and social conscience

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For weather, distance and loss

The Ballad of the Drover

Henry Lawson · 1889→

For the sharp edge of city life

Faces in the Street

Henry Lawson · 1888→

For separation and endurance

Andy's Gone with Cattle

Henry Lawson · 1888→

For lonely and necessary work

The Boundary Rider

Thomas William Heney · 1918→

For labour remembered with tenderness

The Old Whim Horse

Edward Dyson · 1896→

For the energy of work and trade

Wool, Ho!

E. J. Brady · 1899→

For hardship beyond the settled country

From the Far West

Barcroft Boake · 1897→

For lives measured against the weather

In Time of Drought

Mary Hannay Foott · 1885→

For the human cost of losing everything

Sold-Up

C. H. Souter · 1901→

Humour around the campfire

Dry wit, memorable characters and recitation

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For dry country humour

Said Hanrahan

John O’Brien · 1921→

For a story worth retelling

How McDougall Topped the Score

Thomas Edward Spencer · 1906→

For comic confidence undone

Mulga Bill's Bicycle

A. B. Paterson · 1896→

For rivalry taken much too far

The Geebung Polo Club

A. B. Paterson · 1893→

For public life turned into comedy

The Federal Bus Conductor and the Old Lady

A. B. Paterson · 1899→

For a joke carved down to size

Cassidy's Epitaph

A. B. Paterson · 1919→

For memory seasoned with mischief

The Old Camp-oven

Edward Dyson · 1896→

For humour carrying a harder truth

Sold-Up

C. H. Souter · 1901→

For comic bravado and character

Jimmy Dooley's Army

A. B. Paterson · 1923→

Beauty and unease

Landscape, lyricism and the darker bush tradition

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For the music of the landscape

The Horses of the Hills

Marie E. J. Pitt · 1911→

For the bush without romance

Where the Dead Men Lie

Barcroft Boake · 1891→

For beauty edged with danger

The Mallee Fire

C. H. Souter · 1918→

For one of the bush’s clearest soundscapes

Bell-Birds

Henry Kendall · 1918→

For the first colour of spring

September in Australia

Henry Kendall · 1918→

For weather transformed into lyric

Rain

Philip Durham Lorimer · 1901→

For landscape and belonging

The Land Where I Was Born

J. S. Neilson · 1919→

For solitude in the far country

A Song From a Sandhill

Barcroft Boake · 1897→

For distance, memory and unease

From the Far West

Barcroft Boake · 1897→

Discover the stories, voices and rhythms before choosing your first poem. What is Australian bush poetry? →

Find a voice

Meet the poets

Begin with two defining voices, then discover some of the writers who made Australian bush poetry broader, stranger and richer.

Meet all the poets →

Two cornerstone voices

AB
1864–1941

A. B. Paterson

Ride, rivalry and the comic velocity of the bush ballad.

173 poemsStart with Clancy of the Overflow
→HL
1867–1922

Henry Lawson

Work, separation and the sharp edge beneath remembrance.

438 poemsStart with The Ballad of the Drover
→

Six voices to discover

MP1869–1948

Marie E. J. Pitt

Landscape, labour and social conscience.

54 poemsStart with The Horses of the Hills→
DM1866–1939

Edwin Greenslade Murphy (“Dryblower”)

Goldfields memory and Western Australian life.

52 poemsStart with Beyond Coolgardie→
JO1878–1952

John O’Brien

Family, faith, humour and rural community.

45 poemsStart with Said Hanrahan→
BB1866–1892

Barcroft Boake

Beauty, danger and the unsettling Never Never.

30 poemsStart with Where the Dead Men Lie→
ED1865–1931

Edward Dyson

Mining, labour and goldfields communities.

41 poemsStart with The Old Whim Horse→
MF1846–1918

Mary Hannay Foott

Queensland landscape, drought and settlement.

2 poemsStart with Happy Days→
Meet every poet around the campfireMeet all the poets →

The complete collection

There are 984 poems
around the campfire.

Browse every poem →