Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson were rivals not only in literature but in their visions of Australian society. This lively session revisits their famous 1890s debate, often framed as city versus bush, and explores the deeper class tensions beneath it. Designed as an engaging one-night event, the course combines history, literature and cultural debate in an accessible format.

SUGGESTED READING

Any of Lawson’s or Patterson’s works, but a start would be:

• Paterson’s The Man from Snowy River and The Man from Ironbark
• Lawson’s Borderland (Up the Country), Bourke or The Drover’s Wife.

COURSE OUTLINE

• The writings of Lawson and Patterson that illustrate their attitudes towards Australia’s post-contact relationship with the Bush and the City
• Commentaries on their works
• The wider social themes at the time including class divisions and the itinerant worker v settler conflict

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Understand the context in which Lawson and Patterson wrote
2. Understand the debate at the time conducted through the columns of the Bulletin magazine
3. Use this information to help illustrate the nature of social evolution and division in Australia today.