Freedom on the Wallaby
"Freedom on the Wallaby" | |
---|---|
by Henry Lawson | |
Written | 1891 |
First published in | The Worker |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Publication date | 16 May 1891 |
Full text | |
Freedom on the Wallaby at Wikisource |
"Freedom on the Wallaby", Henry Lawson's well known poem, was written as a comment on the 1891 Australian shearers' strike and published by William Lane in The Worker in Brisbane, 16 May 1891.[1]
The last two stanzas of the poem were read out by Frederick Brentnall MP on 15 July 1891 in the Queensland Legislative Council during a 'Vote of Thanks' to the armed police who broke up the Barcaldine strike camp. There were calls in the chamber for Lawson's arrest for sedition. Lawson wrote a bitter rejoinder to Brentnall, The Vote of Thanks Debate.
The "Rebel flag" referred to in the poem is the Eureka Flag that was first raised at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, above the Shearers' strike camp in 1891 and carried on the first Australian May Day march in Barcaldine on 1 May 1891.
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in The Worker it was reprinted in that newspaper on 29 September 1894, and then included in the following anthologies and collections:
- Freedom on the Wallaby : Poems of the Australian People edited by Marjorie Pizer, Pinchgut Press, 1953[2]
- The Penguin Australian Song Book edited by J. S. Manifold, 1964[3]
- The Essential Henry Lawson : The Best Works of Australia's Greatest Writer edited Brian Kiernan, Currey O'Neil, 1982[4]
- A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984[5]
- The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss, Penguin, 1993[6]
- Our Country : Classic Australian Poetry : From Colonial Ballads to Paterson & Lawson edited by Michael Cook, Little Hills Press, 2002[7]
- 60 Classic Australian Poems for Children edited by Chris Cheng, Random House, 2009[8]
See also
- 1891 in Australian literature
References
- ^ "Austlit — " Freedom on the Wallaby" by Henry Lawson". Austlit. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "Freedom on the Wallaby (Pinchgut Press)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "The Penguin Australian Song Book (Penguin Books)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "The Essential Henry Lawson (Currey O'Neil)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 (Lansdowne)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
- ^ "Our Country : Classic Australian Poetry (Little Hills Press)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "60 Classic Australian Poems for Children (Random House)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- v
- t
- e
- Flag of the Southern Cross (1887)
- A Song of the Republic (1887)
- Faces in the Street (1888)
- Andy's Gone with Cattle (1888)
- The Roaring Days (1889)
- The Teams (1889)
- The Fire at Ross's Farm (1890)
- The Song of Old Joe Swallow (1890)
- Freedom on the Wallaby (1891)
- Up the Country (1892)
- The City Bushman (1892)
- The Poets of the Tomb (1892)
- Saint Peter (1893)
- The Never-Never Country (1901)
- Scots of the Riverina (1917)
- His Father's Mate (1888)
- The Drover's Wife (1892)
- The Bush Undertaker (1892)
- On the Edge of a Plain (1893)
- The Union Buries Its Dead (1893)
- Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster (1898)
- The Loaded Dog (1901)
- A Double Buggy at Lahey's Creek (1901)
- A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father (1902)
- While the Billy Boils (1896)
- On the Track (1900)
- Over the Sliprails (1900)
- Joe Wilson and His Mates (1901)
- Crime in the Bush (1899)
- While the Billy Boils (1921)
- Lawson (1943)
- Three in One (1957)
- The Drover's Wife (2021)