1891 Australian shearers' strike wrote his novel in 1892, T"he workingman's paradise", with two aims: to support fundraising efforts for the imprisoned unionists, and to explain unionism and socialism to those who would listen. Banjo Paterson's song Waltzing Matilda, an unofficial Australian anthem, was also written about this era of shearers' industrial disputes in Queensland. Helen Palmer's song 'The Ballad Of 1891', set to music by Doreen Jacobs, details the lead up to the strike and aftermath. The 1975 film Sunday Too Far Away, directed by Ken Hannam has been partly inspired by the events surrounding this strike. The site of the striking shearers'
Waltzing Matilda that "The Bold Fusilier" existed before 1900, and evidence suggests that this song was in fact written as a parody of "Waltzing Matilda" by English soldiers during the Boer War where Australian soldiers are known to have sung "Waltzing Matilda" as a theme. The first verse of "The Bold Fusilier" is: <poem>A bold fusilier came marching back through Rochester Off from the wars in the north country, And he sang as he marched Through the crowded streets of Rochester, Who'll be a soldier for Marlboro and me?</poem> In 2008 amateur Australian historian Peter Forrest claimed that the widespread belief that