Bulletin Debate
Encyclopedia
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
magazine from 1892-93 between two of Australia's
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
most iconic writers and poets: Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson
Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...
.
Origin
At the time, The BulletinThe Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
was a popular and influential publication, and often supported the typical national self-image held by many Australians, sometimes termed the "bush legend." Many Australian writers and poets, such as "Banjo" Paterson, were based primarily in the city, and had a tendency to romanticise bush life.
On 9 July 1892, Lawson published a poem in The Bulletin entitled "Up The Country
Up The Country
Up The Country is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title Borderland, and started the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson about the true nature...
". In this poem, beginning with the verse "I am back from up the country—very sorry that I went,—" Lawson attacked the typical "romanticised" view of bush life.
Paterson's response
On 23 July 1892, Paterson published his reply to Lawson's poem, titled "In Defense of the Bush". Whilst Lawson had accused writers such as Paterson of being "City Bushmen", Paterson countered by claiming that Lawson's view of the bushlife was full of doom and gloom. He appropriately finished his poem with the line, "For the bush will never suit you, and you'll never suit the bush."Other Australian writers, such as Edward Dyson
Edward Dyson
Edward George Dyson was an Australian journalist, poet, playwright and short story writer. He was the elder brother of talented illustrators Will Dyson and Ambrose Dyson.-Early life:...
, also later contributed to the debate.
In 1939, Banjo Paterson recalled his thoughts about the Bulletin debate:
"Henry Lawson was a man of remarkable insight in some things and of extraordinary simplicity in others. We were both looking for the same reef, if you get what I mean; but I had done my prospecting on horseback with my meals cooked for me, while Lawson has done his prospecting on foot and had had to cook for himself. Nobody realized this better than Lawson; and one day he suggested that we should write against each other, he putting the bush from his point of view, and I putting it from mine.
"We ought to do pretty well out of it," he said. "We ought to be able to get in three or four sets of verses before they stop us."
This suited me all right, for we were working on space, and the pay was very small ... so we slam-banged away at each other for weeks and weeks; not until they stopped us, but until we ran out of material ..."
Cultural significance
The Bulletin Debate was followed closely by widespread readers of the publication, reinforcing the Bush as a significant part of Australia's national identity.There was never any clear "winner" to this debate. However, Paterson presented Australia with the desired image of its national identity, and his short story collections received spectacular sales.
It is somewhat curious that, despite their vastly differing perspectives on Australian bush life, both Lawson and Paterson are often mentioned alongside each other as Australia's most iconic and influential writers.
Criticisms
The Debate did not pass without receiving criticism in regards to its attempts to define Australia's national identity. One British reviewer of the 1890s declared:The delusion these writers [of 'The Bulletin' school] labour under is trying to be too exclusively Australian, by which they come merely provincial. That a man's lot should be cast in the wilds of Australia is no reason that his whole inner life should be taken up with the glorification of shearers or the ridicule of jackarooJackaroo (trainee)A Jackaroo is a young man working on a sheep or cattle station, to gain practical experience in the skills needed to become an owner, overseer, manager, etc. The word originated in Queensland, Australia in the Nineteenth Century and is still in use in Australia and New Zealand in the twenty-first...
s. And a genuine Australian poetry can only arise when such matters fall into their true place and assume their relatively small artistic importance.
Tony Moore, in his 1997 paper about bohemian culture, says:
The bohemian traits revered by 'The Bulletin' writers are almost a caricature of the Australian national type propagated by the journal: mateship and blokey bonding to the exclusion of family life; hostility to religion, personified by the Protestant wowser; ironic humour; a fondness for alcohol, pubs and gambling; pre-occupation with a free-wheeling Australian identity (overlaid with francophilia and Irish nationalism) invariably opposed to a conservative Englishness; and an occasional flirtation with political causes such as socialism and republicanism. The identification of the bohemian with male mateship remains a strong thread in the Australian tradition, but one contested by women like Mary GilmoreMary GilmoreDame Mary Gilmore DBE was a prominent Australian socialist poet and journalist.-Early life:Mary Jean Cameron was born on 16 August 1865 at Cotta Walla near Goulburn, New South Wales...
in the 1890s, Dulcie DeamerDulcie DeamerMary Elizabeth Kathleen Dulcie Deamer was an Australian novelist, poet, journalist and actor. She was a founder and a committee member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.-Life:...
in the 1920s, Joy HesterJoy HesterJoy St Clair Hester was an Australian artist who played an important, though sometimes underrated, role in the development of Australian modernism, though her works could also be considered Abstract Expressionism....
in the 1940s and Germaine GreerGermaine GreerGermaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
in the 1960s.
Works of poetry involved in the debate
| Publication Date | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 9 July 1892 | Henry Lawson Henry Lawson Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"... |
Borderland Up The Country Up The Country is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title Borderland, and started the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson about the true nature... (retitled Up The Country Up The Country Up The Country is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title Borderland, and started the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson about the true nature... ) |
| 23 July 1892 | Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood... |
In Defence of the Bush In Defence of the Bush In Defence of the Bush is a popular poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 23 July 1892 in reply to fellow poet Henry Lawson's poem, Up The Country. Paterson's rebuttal sparked the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by... |
| 30 July 1892 | Edward Dyson Edward Dyson Edward George Dyson was an Australian journalist, poet, playwright and short story writer. He was the elder brother of talented illustrators Will Dyson and Ambrose Dyson.-Early life:... |
The Fact of the Matter The Fact of the Matter The Fact of the Matter is a poem by prolific Australian writer and poet Edward Dyson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 30 July 1892 in reply to fellow poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson... |
| 6 August 1892 | Henry Lawson Henry Lawson Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"... |
In Answer to "Banjo", and Otherwise (retitled: The City Bushman The City Bushman The City Bushman is a poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 6 August 1892, under the title In Answer to "Banjo", and Otherwise... ) |
| 20 August 1892 | H.H.C.C. | The Overflow of Clancy The Overflow of Clancy The Overflow of Clancy is a poem written under the pseudonym "H.H.C.C". It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 20 August 1892 as part of the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by Lawson, Paterson, and others, about the true nature of life in the Australian bush.Colin Roderick, in his... |
| 27 August 1892 | Francis Kenna Francis Kenna William Francis Kenna , known as Francis Kenna, was an Australian poet, journalist, and Labor Member of the Legislative Assembly in Queensland... |
Banjo, of the Overflow Banjo, of the Overflow Banjo, of the Overflow is a poem by Australian poet Francis Kenna. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 27 August 1892 in reply to fellow poets Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson and Edward Dyson... |
| 1 October 1892 | Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood... |
In Answer to Various Bards (retitled An Answer to Various Bards) |
| 8 October 1892 | Henry Lawson Henry Lawson Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"... |
The Poets of the Tomb |
| 20 October 1892 | Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood... |
A Voice from the Town |