Henry Lawson : A Stranger on the Darling

The year was 1892. Henry Lawson - painter, poet and fervent Labour supporter - was finding it almost impossible to sustain a living in Sydney from his writing, and the few pounds he earned were quickly spent in the nearby bars of Lower George Street. He was broke, an alcoholic, and "on the ropes".

J. F. Archibald, chief editor and proprietor of the Sydney Bulletin, planning to evict Lawson from the city environment to give him "copy" for new work, provided Lawson with a rail ticket to Bourke - one way - and the sum of f5 to assist with expenses for the first few weeks.

While in Bourke, Lawson obtained temporary employment as a house painter. He later worked as a rouseabout at Toorale woolshed before trekking many miles overland. eventually reaching the village of Hungerford on the New South Wales-Queensland border. There, for the first time, Lawson saw the outback as it really was. "You can have no idea of the horrors of the country out here" he wrote to his Aunt Emma in Sydney. "Men tramp and beg and live like dogs."

Henry Lawson: A Stranger on the Darling traces Lawson's wanderings about Bourke and on the track during 1892-93 and accounts for the men he became friendly with. It was from these men that he created the characters for much of his memorable prose and verse, and long after he had left the Bourke district he was producing poetry and stories based on his western experiences.