Waltzing Matilda man remembered

A cairn will be built in memory of Andrew "Banjo" Paterson

A collection of stones from a Scottish village is being sent to Australia to form a cairn in memory of the man who wrote Waltzing Matilda.

Pupils from the rural village of Carmichael in South Lanarkshire are sending the stones to an equally tiny community 10,000 miles away.

It is in memory of the bush poet Banjo Paterson who wrote the folk song.

The writer's family farmed in the Biggar area before moving to Australia in the early 1850s.

The memorial will be built in Yeoval, the closest village to Buckinbah farm where Paterson was raised.

Poetry published

The cairn will be erected by the Yeoval Historical Society in the village's Buckinbah Park.

Andrew "Banjo" Paterson was born in 1864 and went to Sydney Grammar School. He later qualified as a solicitor.

In 1885 he began having his poetry published in the Sydney edition of The bulletin under the pseudonym of "The Banjo".

The original lyrics for waltzing Matilda were written in 1895 and were published as sheet music in 1903.

The music was written by Christina Macpherson, based on the traditional Celtic folk tune "The Craigeelee" which is thought to be based on the Scottish song "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea".