Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) 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. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem. Andrew Barton Paterson was born at the property "Narrambla", near Orange, New South Wales, the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a
John Macpherson (minister) John Macpherson (minister) John Macpherson (1710–1765) was a Scottish minister and antiquarian. The son of Dugald Macpherson, minister at Duirinish, Skye, he studied classics at Aberdeen University, graduating M.A. 1728, and D.D. 1761. He was minister of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, 1734 to 1742, and of Sleat on Skye, from 1742 to 1765. Macpherson published "Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government, Manners, Religion of the Ancient Caledonians, their Posterity, the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots", London, 1768. This work on the Ossian controversy upheld the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian. Though not closely