Banjo’s memorial service commemorating 80 years

Lovers of the writings of local literary legend AB “Banjo” Paterson are invited to a special event this weekend. 

Inaugural memorial service for the Bard of the Bush is being held at the Banjo Paterson Park on the Ophir Road this Saturday, at 11am, local historian Elizabeth Griffin said.

“We’re having a little service on the 5th of February, a memorial service for the anniversary of his death,” she explained.

“The Anglican Service will be with Minister, the Reverend Mal Dunnett from Holy Trinity Church and I’ll also be doing a brief outline on Banjo’s life, we’ll also pop some flowers on the memorial,” Elizabeth added.

President of the newly-formed “Friends of Banjo Paterson Park”, the event was planned to have been held last year on the 80th anniversary of his death with COVID lockdowns, however, putting the event on hold.

“He died in 1941 and this is the first time that we’re holding it; we’re intending to make it an annual event.

“It’s open to the public and we’d like as many people as possible who want to attend,” Elizabeth said.

With the Banjo Paterson Poetry Festival in Orange starting mid-February, she believes that the event is the perfect way to launch the annual literary celebration of the poet born at the property "Narrambla", near Orange in 1864.

With a love of local history, Elizabeth said that the land for the park had been donated by later owners of the property, the Lane family in 1947 in an area close to what is now Clifton Grove.

She said that new capital works at the Park are seeing it happily upgraded for future use. “There’s a lot of work going-on at the moment, which is great,” she said.

Continuing appeal of the legendary bush poet, journalist, and author, Elizabeth believes, lies in Paterson’s love of country.

“I just think he was a man of the people with a wonderful gift to express what he was seeing,” she said.

With nearly 40 years as a local historian, Elizabeth enjoys exploring the amazing stories that can be found hidden away in towns like Orange.

“When I retired, I took-up my passion, which is local history… I’m a real history nut and I teach Australian history on a Friday afternoon for U3A (University of the Third Age),” she said.

For more information, contact Elizabeth on 6361 1920.