We're All Australians Now

AB (Banjo) Paterson was born near Orange in Central New South Wales on 17 February 1864. Upon leaving school Paterson studied law and was admitted as a solicitor. In 1899 at the outbreak of the Boer War, Paterson was determined to go to South Africa and so he offered his services to the Sydney Morning Herald as a war correspondent. Much of his verse appeared in The Bulletin under the name The Banjo. Paterson died in 1941, his enormous contribution to Australian literature recognised during his lifetime.

Fine artist Mark Wilson has been illustrating and writing children’s books for over twenty years, at the same time exhibiting as a fine artist in many solo and group exhibitions and performing as a musician. Of his numerous popular children’s books, the most recent are Stranded!, Angel of Kokoda, Journey of the Sea Turtle, My Mother’s Eyes: The Story of a Boy Soldier, The Yellow Turban and Aladdin and The Magic Lamp. Mark has won many awards for illustration and fine art, including Whitley Award for Childrens Literature (The Last Tree 2007); Wilderness Society Award for Children’s Literature (The Extinction Trilogy, wirtten by Gary Crew, 2004); Wilderness Soci