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A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s Life Story Andrew Barton Paterson was born on the 17th February 1864 at Narambla, near Orange in New South Wales. His father Andrew Paterson was a lowland Scot, whose family before him for generations had been farmers in Lanarkshire. Banjo Paterson spent his early years at a station called "Buckenbah" at Obley, near Yeoval in the western district of New South Wales, on an unfenced block of dingo infested country leased by his father and uncle at a few pence an acre. When he was five, the family moved to Illalong, a day’s ride from Lambing Flat diggings. There were seven children in the Paterson family: Andrew Barton ("Banjo"), Hamilton, Florence, Jessie, Edith, Grace and Gwen. The station at Illalong was then on the main route between Sydney and Melbourne, so the exciting traffic of horsemen, bullock teams, drovers and Cobb & Co coaches became a familiar sight for Banjo. Even more exciting to Banjo was that the gold diggings at Lambing Flat were only a day's ride away, and that the gold escort came past twice a week with an armed trooper, rifle at the ready, riding in front and another on the box with the coachman. These scenes, especially the bullockies and their teams fasci