Henry Lawson

Well know poet and writer Henry Lawson was born on 17 June 1867 at Grenfell, New South Wales  to Niels Hertzberg (Peter) Larsen a Norwegian born minor and his wife Louisa. Lawson the eldest of four surviving children often moved as a child as his father followed the gold. Eventually the family settled down in the region near Gulgong. Lawson was nine years old before he was able to start school at the newly established Eurunderee Public School thanks to his mothers agitation in getting the school opened.  

In 1976 Lawson having earache awoke one morning slightly deaf which continued for the next five years and at the age of 14 became considerably worse. 

Lawson’s schooling ended in 1880 at which time he worked with his father on local contract building jobs and also further afield in the Blue Mountains. In 1883 he joined his mother Louisa, sister Gertrude and brother Peter who had moved to Sydney.

Later in the 1880’s Lawson started to write and published his first poem ‘A Song of the Republic’ in the Bulletin on 1 October 1887. He continued to write poems and stories many of which came from memories of his boyhood memories of the diggings.

Lawson died of a stroke in Abbotsford, Sydney on the 2nd of September 1922.

To learn more about Henry Lawson, visit the Henry Lawson Centre in Mayne Street, Gulgong.