Banjo Paterson Travelling with fiancée, Sarah Riley, they met with her old school friend, Christina Macpherson, who had recently attended a race at Warrnambool in Victoria. She had heard a band playing a tune there, which became stuck in her head and replayed it for Paterson on the autoharp. The melody also resonated with him and propelled him to write "Waltzing Matilda" While there has been much debate about what inspired the words, the song became one of his most his widely known and sung ballads. In addition, he wrote the lyrics for songs with piano scores, such as "The Daylight is
Banjo Paterson and had engaged in a scandalous romantic liaison with Macpherson. Paterson died of a heart attack in Sydney on 5 February 1941 aged 76. Paterson's grave, along with that of his wife, is in the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, Sydney. The publication of The Man from Snowy River and five other ballads in "The Bulletin" made 'The Banjo' a household name. In 1895, Angus & Robertson published these poems as a collection of Australian verse. The book sold 5000 copies in the first four months of publication. In 1895, Paterson headed north to Dagworth station near Winton, Queensland.