Henry Lawson was Australia's most remarkable poet and author. He was one of the earliest to accurately capture the Australian way of life and show it in such a way, that it could be easily identified by ordinary people.

Henry Lawson was born on the goldfields of New South Wales in 1967. He did not receive a very good formal education but he did have plenty of books and he was always read to by his mother. When he was 9 years old Henry had an ear infection, and had become almost totally deaf by the time he was 14. He had always lived in the country with his family, and surrounded with the way of life of the bush. Throughout his childhood he always listened to bush tales and stories. He soon began to write short stories of the life and times in the country. Henry became a popular writer and spent more and more of his time to his great writing talent.  

(Courtesy National Library of Australia)