The Man from Stuart Town

Driving from Dubbo to Orange the other week, we called in on Stuart Town. I noticed the pub there is called the Iron Bark Inn.

This rang a bell. We'd been taking an interest in Banjo Paterson and his poetry during this trip. In Walgett we'd discussed the stranger who'd outwitted the yokels by successfully pelting a stone across the 'Darling River'. (Google Maps says it's the Barwon and the Namoi that meet at Walgett, but never mind!) They'd made a wager about it, knowing that "there wasn't a stone within 50 mile, For the saltbush plain and the open down, Produce no quarries in Walgett Town".  His trick was to bring his own stone. He knew about that: "..... he had wandered down, On a previous visit to Walgett Town". (Been There Before: http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/been-there-before.shtml

Anyway, back to Ironbark. The Man From Ironbark is the one about the Sydney barber who plays a practical joke on the yokel who turns up at his shop, There's a theme developing here. Paterson must have had a bit of a thing about outback yokels. They must have given him a hard time in his travels. In the poem, the barber pretends to cut the throat of the poor visitor, who runs screaming out of the barber's shop. This explains why "flowing beards are all the go way up in the Ironbark". Do check out the musical adaptation from Wallis and Matilda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POgKYH3JTC8



Well it turns out that Stuart Town used to be called Ironbark, and this is indeed where the Man From Ironbark came from.