Home Today's Reason to Drink February 17: Banjo Paterson’s Birthday

February 17: Banjo Paterson’s Birthday

It’s Banjo Paterson’s birthday. Born in 1864, Banjo was perhaps Australia’s greatest “bush” poet. He wrote Waltzing Matilda, which is Australia’s unofficial national anthem, The Man from Snowy River, and The Lost Drink, which is a tender homage to the perfect hangover remedy that was found, then, alas, lost to the sands of time and legend. So, you’re probably wondering, did Banjo like to knock back a drink or ten? Of course he did. You did hear me say he was a 19th-century Australian poet, didn’t you. Top stanza: “We drank until the drink gave out, we searched from room to room. And round the pub, like drunken ghosts, went howling through the gloom. The shearers found some kerosene and settled down again. But for the squatter chaps and I, we staggered to the train.”