Tags: Poem.
Freedom on the Wallaby Henry Lawson’s well known poem was written as a comment on the 1891 Australian shearers’ strike and published by William Lane in the Worker in Brisbane 16 May 1891. The last two stanzas of the poem were read out by Frederick Brentnall MP on 15 July 1891 in the Queensland Legislative Council during a ‘Vote of Thanks’ to the armed police who broke up the Barcaldine strike camp. There were calls in the chamber for Lawson’s arrest for sedition.