Henry Lawson was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson

Banjo Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...

, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer". He was the son of publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson

Louisa Lawson

Louisa Lawson was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.-Early life:...

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Henry Lawson was born in a town on the Grenfell goldfields

Grenfell, New South Wales

Grenfell is a country town in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia, in Weddin Shire. It is 370 kilometres west of Sydney and five hours' drive from the city. It is close to Forbes, Cowra and Young. At the 2006 census, Grenfell had a population of 1,994.-History:Prior to European...

 of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. His father was Niels Herzberg Lawson, a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

-born miner who went to sea at 21 and arrived in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 in 1855 to join the gold rush, along with partner William Henry John Slee

William Henry John Slee

William Henry John Slee, FGS, , Australian geologist, mines inspector, mining warden, was born Wilhelm Heinrich Johann Slee on 3 May 1836 at Rostock, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, a son of Jacob and Regina Slee. More usually known as W.H.J...

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