Bush Poet • Rural Traveller • Australian History Enthusiast
For I.G.Baylis, a country town is somewhere to stop, look about and wonder what life was like before the bitumen and the passing traffic. Writing as I.G.Baylis The Mountain Bush Poet, he draws on rural Australia’s history, his own heritage and a life that has included horses, bush hospitals and farming in the ranges.
He grew up in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales and later bought a farm in the Moonbi Ranges of New England. His love of the bush and nineteenth-century Australia runs through his verse, from poems inspired by his travels to the imagined lives of early station folk.
This page brings his biography and Country Campfire contributions together in one permanent home, with room for more poems, recordings and stories as they are shared.
Horses, Bush Hospitals and Life in the Ranges
His interest in Australia’s past has roots in his own family. His heritage stretches back to convicts and crew of the First Fleet, and to early pioneers involved in Gippsland’s gold rush and cattle farming.
A great-grandfather’s love of horses found an echo in his own life. He spent much of his teenage years with horses, first riding and later driving them.
After training in medical imaging, he moved to a bush hospital. There he encountered the characters and country-related injuries that came with working in a rural community.
The pull of the bush eventually took him to a farm in the Moonbi Ranges, where he ran Murray Grey cattle and a few Corriedale sheep. Reading about the past, working the land and writing verse about his travels and heritage gave him a way to follow his interest in the old days.
Giving the Past a Voice
His poetry grows from an interest in the people who lived through Australia’s rural history: their work, their surroundings and the experiences that shaped their lives. He sees poetry as a lasting record of those people and their times.
As he puts it: “A good bush verse can take you into it better than a movie.”
On trips to the Glen Innes Celtic Festival, he often calls in to see Thundercloud at the Australian Poetry Hall of Fame and recites some of his original verse.
His writing also includes Crooked River Station, a compilation of poems set on a fictional station established in Victoria’s mountains in 1862. Through its characters, camaraderie and hardships, the project explores life in the early rural settlement of the bush.
Now retired, he travels through rural Australia with his wife, visiting country towns and exploring their history. Imagining those places as they once were often leads him to another piece of bush verse.
I.G.Baylis on Country Campfire
Crooked River Station
A sweeping bush poem about a mountain station taking shape beside Crooked River, and the stockmen and tradesmen who bring it to life.
Rights And Permission
Poems and contributions are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
Poems, recitals, photographs, stories and original works remain the property of their original creator and are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
Country Campfire Legend #28