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The $10 note features Andrew Barton Paterson C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) on the obverse, and Dame Mary Gilmore on the reverse.
A. B. Paterson, better known as 'Banjo' Paterson was born near Molong in New South Wales on 17th. February 1864, and was the author of such Australian classic verses as the fiercely adventurous, 'The Man from Snowy River', and the reflective, 'Clancy of the Overflow', and 'The Man from Ironbark'.
Paterson is also credited with being the author of the accepted words to the famous song, 'Waltzing Matilda', which has been heard around the world and is regarded as being as Australian as the kangaroo and koalas. To some people, it is considered to be Australia's true National Anthem. (Several theories abound to the origins of the music which was probably composed in 1899 by Harry A. Nathan, the organist at the Townsville Cathedral in Queensland.)
Paterson was a graziers son, sent to be educated in Sydney - which he detested, who found work, firstly as a lawyer's clerk and then as a solicitor and finally a journalist and editor of the Sydney 'Evening News', the 'Town and Country Journal' and the 'Sportsman'.
His stint as a war correspondent in the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion broadened his understanding of the human spirit and, coupled with his love and understanding for the bush and its people, helped him create the images that many of us who have read his works will never forget!
Paterson was awarded his C.B.E. in 1939, and even though his verses had sold 100,000's of copies and probably made his publishers rich, when he died two years later on 5th. February 1941, in Sydney, all he left his wife was his total fortune of 215 pounds.
Dame Mary Gilmore, began writing at the age of 8 and was still putting pen to paper in her 90's and was recognised as a leading poet of her time but she had many other talents that she was blessed with. Born at Goulburn, NSW. on 16th. August 1865, Mary Jean Cameron often played with children of the local aboriginal tribe, the Waradgery, and she never forgot the squalor and the ill-treatment that she saw as a child.
As an adult, she often wrote articles about the pitiful conditions that the Aborigines had to tolerate and, throughout her long life, she actively campaigned in an effort to improve their lot. She left Australia in 1896 for the ill-fated New Australia Colony of Cosme (in Paraguay), where she met and married an ex-Victorian shearer William Gilmore, but after four years of hardship and disenchantment they returned to Australia, with their son, and settled on a farm in Victoria.
During the next few years her radical poetry started to appear in the 'Bulletin' and, by 1908, she was editing the women's page of the 'Sydney Worker', a newspaper that devoted itself to socialism and its aims of equality.
Her talents in fighting for women's rights, aboriginal welfare, treatment of prisoners, health, pensions etc., plus her encouragement to young writers, her poetry and other writings, were recognised by the Australian Government of the day and, in 1937, she was awarded the title of Dame of the British Empire.
Dame Mary Gilmore died in Sydney on 3rd. December 1962, at the age of 97, and was given a State funeral attended by all members of the N.S.W. Cabinet. As a final honour she has been selected to take her place on our currency.
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