Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses is the second collection of poems by the famous Australian poet Banjo Paterson. It was released in 1902, and features the poems "Rio Grande's Last Race", "Mulga Bill's Bicycle", "Saltbush Bill's Game Cock" and "Saltbush Bill's Second Fight". Paterson is famed for writing poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood.

Now this was what Macpherson told While waiting in the stand; A reckless rider, over-bold, The only man with hands to hold The rushing Rio Grande. He said, 'This day I bid good-bye To bit and bridle rein, To ditches deep and fences high, For I have dreamed a dream, and I Shall never ride again. 'I dreamt last night I rode this race That I to-day must ride, And cant'ring down to take my place I saw full many an old friend's face Come stealing to my side.

In 1889 the revered Australian folk poet, A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson, first published his ballad, Clancy of the Overflow. The verse achieved immediate popularity and, with the creation of his legendary character, Clancy — a free-spirited stockman — Paterson had summed up the essence of the Australian outlook. Clancy attained folk hero status and, 125 years after he was created, continues to loom large in the nation’s consciousness, encompassing many of the qualities of what it means to be an Australian and inspiring dreams of escape to the bush, far away from the ‘dusty, dirty city’. To mark the 150th birthday of Banjo Paterson, award-winning illustrator Robert Ingpen has journeyed into the Australian outback, exploring the myth of Clancy through words and illustrations, to find what it is that has made Clancy such an enduring figure in Australian folklore.