Arcadia down under: 'Banjo' Paterson's poetic creation of an Australian past

A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson's contribution to the Australian literary tradition created an Arcadian past that simultaneously erased the Aboriginals and made being Anglo-Australian more romantic; he brought together different Anglo styles and cultures into the Australian voice; and he created a national legend fit to have emerged from the romantic Arcadian past. Paterson's poetry created an artificial history of Australia which erased Aboriginal culture and history. His contribution to the Australian literary society helped found the "bush" tradition in the late nineteenth century, which became the basis of the contemporary Australian literary and popular tradition. To appropriate the words of Seamus Deane, Paterson attempted "to create a version of history for [Anglo-Australians] in which their intrinsic essence has always manifested itself, thereby producing readings of the past that are as monolithic as that which they are trying to supplant."...