Includes the open Faces in the Street by Henry Lawson

Gold miners Andy, Dave and Jm are sinking a shaft at Stony Creek. After an unsuccessful day's fishing, they decide it would be easier just to blow the fish out of the water. But ther young dog becomes curious about their experiment, with explosive results!--Cover.

A unique collection of original Australian bush ballads and the stories that inspired them – in the tradition of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson. WALTZING AUSTRALIA is a wonderful celebration of the Australian bush and the people who live there, written by a gifted storyteller who's spent much of his life working on the land. Featuring fifty poems and stories that tell of the heartbreak, humour and hard yakka that come with living and working in the bush – many of which were written on long days droving sheep and cattle, on the back of a motorbike, or by the fading light in camp hundreds of miles from anywhere. These evocative bush verses and the tales behind them shine light on characters and events from Australia's pioneering past as well as embracing Tim's own experiences in the outback.

''Some day,' Lawson wrote, 'an Australian writer will come along who'll remind the critics and readers of Dickens, Carlyle, and Thackeray mixed, and he'll do justice to these little customs of ours.' Even then that writer was at work, and his name was Lawson.' GEOFFREY BLAINEY, one of our great historians, has written a marvellous introduction into the life and works of Australia's favourite writers. A lifelong devotee, he has painstakingly selected the very best of Henry Lawson for this collection, which includes 'The Drover's Wife', 'Joe Wilson's Courtship', 'Water Them Geraniums' and 'The Loaded Dog'. With its tales of gold prospecting and of settlers suffering hardships and heartbreak, as well as his seldom seen verse, this is the essential Lawson collection - the classic of Australian classics.

One of the great observers of Australian life, Henry Lawson looms large in our national psyche. Yet at his best Lawson transcends the very bush, the very outback, the very up-country, the very pub or selector's hut he conveys with such brevity and acuity- he make specific places universal. Henry Lawson is too often regarded as a legend rather than a writer to be enjoyed. In this selection Lawson is revealed as an author whose delightful, humorous, wry and moving short stories continue to delight generations of readers. This is the essential Lawson collection - the classic of Australian classics. 'Lawson's sketches are beyond praise.' Joseph Conrad'Lawson gets more feelings, observation and atmosphere into a page than does Hemingway.' Edward Garnett