My Favorite Westerns

Category: A. B. Paterson

  • The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival

    The Man from Snowy River Riley
    Jack Riley – The Man from Snowy River ???
    The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival
    The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival

    http://www.manfromsnowyriverbushfestival.com.au/

    kangaroo bar

    The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival

    is held annually in Corryong, Victoria in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains halfway between Melbourne and Sydney.

    The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival was established in its current format in 1995, when promoter Jonathon King celebrated the centenary year of Banjo Paterson’s poem “The Man from Snowy River”. This was a celebration of bush folklore, skills and traditions based around the icon Jack Riley and all he represented. For historical information please refer to The Man from Snowy River Museum.

    It is a unique bush gathering of mountain riders, poets, artists and lovers of the Australian High Country and pioneering spirit. Held every April, the Festival brings together people from around Australia as well as international visitors to celebrate traditional high country and bush culture and in particular the imagery created by AB Banjo Paterson’s and Australia’s most famous poem “The Man from Snowy River”.

    The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival recreates the fun and excitement of a bush gathering where both new and old friends come together to have a yarn and a beer, to enjoy traditional bush tucker and, of course, kick up their heels.

    The Festival offers contestant and visitor alike a unique opportunity to be part of the celebration of traditional Australian Bush skills that remain an essential part of Australia’s heritage.

    The Man from Snowy River Challenge, Art and Photography Exhibition, Bush Poetry and Music The Re Enactment of Banjo’s famous poem, Aussie Bush Idol and Ute Muster have grown to be events listed on calendars all over Australia.

    Riley’s Ride

    Riley’s Ride 2013 & 2014 are fully Booked:  Next Ride avaiable is 2015.  A limited number of bookings for the 2015 Ride can be made at the 2014 Man From Snowy River Festival with the balance opening at a later date in 2014. This date will be announced at the 2014 festival.

    Each year prior to the Festival, horse riders set out on a four day trail ride through breathtaking scenery which leant poetic inspiration to Banjo Paterson. Known as ‘Riley’s Ride’ the event is an essential element of the Bush Festival. It traces the last journey of legendary Upper Murray stockman Jack Riley who met Banjo Paterson in 1890 and is locally regarded as the inspiration for Paterson ‘s famous ballad, “The Man from Snowy River”.

    Follow the footsteps of the Man from Snowy River, meet new friends and have a great time whilst enjoying the scenery of the magnificent Upper Murray.

    The annual ride is held to commemorate Jack Riley’s life, and the part he played in the early days of this district, and also to laud the efforts of those who selflessly sought to rescue him under harsh and trying conditions. Jack and his meeting with Banjo, is reputed to be the inspiration which led to the penning of “The Man From Snowy River”, Banjo Paterson’s epic ballad. Riley’s Ride was instigated in 1989. The ride offers spectacular views and the chance to meet people from far and wide, who may come from many different walks of life but share a love of the Australian bush and deep respect for the pioneering families of the area. It is a challenging ride and a character building experience.

    Please remember that the 4 day trail ride does cover mountainous terrain with several very steep climbs and descents. You and your horse should have a good level of fitness and be well prepared to limit the chance of injury. You will be travelling through remote and difficult to access, other than by horse or foot, areas. You must have current ambulance cover.

    We travel on average about 30kms a day. You can expect to spend between 5 to 8 hours in the saddle each day. We break into groups of about 8 horses for most stages of the ride.

  • Waltzing Matilda …

    Not sure if this is Western or not … I just found it darn interesting:

    Paterson’s “Waltzing Matilda”
    by Steve King

    From Today in Literature:  http://www.todayinliterature.com/stories.asp?Event_Date=2/17/1864

    On this day (Feb 17) in 1864 A. B. (“Banjo”) Paterson, the Australian bush poet who wrote “Waltzing Matilda,” was born in New South Wales. The story of the creation of Australia’s unofficial national anthem is an engaging one, a convergence of history, politics, biography, etymology and irony that unravels in all directions. In 1894 Paterson was a thirty year-old city lawyer with a distaste for both cities and the practice of law. He preferred horses, history and his outback home, and writing ballads about them. While on a visit with his fiance to Dagworth Station (large ranches, originally run by the government on convict labor) in Queensland, Paterson was taken with a nameless tune that he heard his hostess play on the piano from memory. Having decided to set words to it, Paterson immediately found his raw material in his host’s guided tour of the Station, which included a description of those events surrounding the eight-day Shearers’ Strike several months earlier. The “swagman [a drifter or itinerant sheep-shearer, carrying his swag or blanket-roll] camped by a billabong [waterhole]” was Samuel “Frenchy” Hoffmeister. He was a militant member of the Shearers’ Union, thought to have been the one responsible for burning down the Dagworth woolshed, killing 140 sheep. He was not relaxing “under the shade of a coolibah [eucalyptus] tree” but hiding out. If “he sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy [tin can of water] boiled,” it would have been very softly. When the swagman “stowed that jumbuck [sheep] in his tucker [food] bag” he was adding the fuel of poaching to the fire of political and class war. When “up rode the squatter [wealthy landowner], mounted on his thoroughbred,” backed by “the troopers, one, two, three,” it was a contest no swagman — least of all a militant unionist-arsonist-poacher — could win. When he suicidally “leapt into the billabong,” crying “You’ll never catch me alive,” it was the leap of a cornered, outback, underclass, convict-bred martyr, to the cry of ‘up yours, mate.’

    “Frenchy” Hoffmeister, the historical swagman, shot rather than drowned himself, and was from German stock, as was the expression “waltzing Matilda.” Auf der walz means to ‘go on the tramp’ or hit the road, used in Germany to describe traveling workers or soldiers on the march; a Matilda came to mean those women who followed the soldiers, to ‘keep them warm.’ Eventually the soldier’s greatcoat or blanket was a Matilda. Thus Paterson’s swagman-hero was not only without justice, or food, or a way out, but a woman’s warmth. And the nameless tune that Paterson first heard at Dagworth Station and took for his swagman turned out to be a version of the “Craigielee March,” which was itself taken from a century-old Scottish air called “Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielee.” There may be older, less direct roots for the tune that Paterson made famous, but “Craigielee” was written by Robert Tannahill, a lonely, semi-cripple who would escape to the woods, and whose final relief was to kill himself by drowning.

    waltzing matilda a b paterson 1

3 responses to “The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival”

  1. cindybruchman Avatar
    cindybruchman

    I used to ride horses for pleasure in my teens. It would be great to attend this!

    Reply
  2. jcalberta Avatar
    jcalberta

    Oh, I so agree. Now that I’m getting older, I see a lot of things I’d love to do. That 8 day Rileys’ Ride would the memory of a lifetime.

    Reply
  3. Marilyn Armstrong Avatar
    Marilyn Armstrong

    How I wish I was young enough to do it and rich enough to afford it! I love horses and I’ve always wanted to go to Australia.

    Reply

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