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Mulga Bill's Bicycle single work   poetry   humour   "`TWAS Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze"
  • Author:agent A. B. Paterson http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo
Issue Details: First known date: 1896... 1896 Mulga Bill's Bicycle
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Mulga Bill’s Bicycle was written by Banjo Paterson in 1896. It was written at a time when cycling was a relatively new and popular social activity. Cycles were ridden everywhere, including in the outback by shearers and other workers who needed to travel cheaply. It tells the hilarious story of Mulga Bill, who thinks he’s much better at cycling than he turns out to be. A resounding crash sends him back to his original mode of transport – his trusty horse. Kilmeny and Deborah Niland’s delightful illustrations catch the mood and humour of Paterson’s verse with great spirit, and this book has become an enduring classic.

Synopsis of the illustrated picture book.

Source: Harper Collins

(http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780207172847/mulga-bills-bicycle/#sm.00001nzfrcbsrdd2gtij7q97dp0qg)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 2 (NSW Stage 1)

General Capabilities

Literacy, Personal and social

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Sydney Mail 25 July 1896 Z630704 1896 newspaper issue 1896
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses A. B. Paterson , London Sydney Melbourne : Angus and Robertson , 1902 Z822777 1902 selected work poetry London Sydney Melbourne : Angus and Robertson , 1902
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New Song in an Old Land Rex Ingamells (editor), London : Longmans, Green , 1943 Z132802 1943 anthology poetry London : Longmans, Green , 1943 pg. 55-56
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Favourite Australian Poems Ian Mudie (editor), Adelaide : Rigby , 1963 Z337064 1963 anthology poetry humour Adelaide : Rigby , 1963 pg. 101-102
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Collected Verse of A. B. Paterson : Containing 'The Man from Snowy River', 'Rio Grande' and 'Saltbush Bill, J. P.' A. B. Paterson , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1921 Z185994 1921 collected work poetry Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1982 pg. 113-114
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Singer of the Bush, A. B. (Banjo) Paterson : Complete Works 1885-1900 A. B. Paterson , Rosamund Campbell , Philippa Harvie , Sydney : Lansdowne , 1983 Z499636 1983 collected work short story poetry drama biography humour satire Sydney : Lansdowne , 1983 pg. 258-259
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Macquarie Bedtime Story Book Rosalind Price (editor), Walter McVitty (editor), Chatswood : Macquarie Library , 1987 Z912760 1987 anthology children's fiction poetry children's Chatswood : Macquarie Library , 1987 pg. 172-173
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Humour Michael Sharkey , Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1988 Z200257 1988 anthology poetry prose short story humour satire Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1988 pg. 50
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Collection of Australian Bush Verse Castle Hill : Peter Antill-Rose , 1989 Z91384 1989 anthology poetry Castle Hill : Peter Antill-Rose , 1989 pg. 54
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Banjo's Best-Loved Poems : Chosen by his Grand-Daughters A. B. Paterson , Rosamund Campbell , Philippa Harvie , Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 Z571016 1985 selected work poetry Willoughby : Weldon Publishing , 1989 pg. 76-78
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Vision Splendid : The Complete Poetry of A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson A. B. Paterson , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z266275 1990 selected work poetry drama satire humour North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 pg. 20
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Book of Australian Ballads Melbourne : Macmillan , 1989 Z1188292 1989 anthology poetry children's A collection of favourite Australian ballads telling bushrangers, drought, the Wild Colonial Boy, and much more besides. South Melbourne : Macmillan Australia , 1990 pg. 13-17
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Selected Poems : A. B. Paterson A. B. Paterson , Les Murray , Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1992 Z414462 1992 selected work poetry humour satire Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1992 pg. 66-67
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson : Bush Ballads, Poems, Stories and Journalism A. B. Paterson , Clement Semmler (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1992 Z459901 1992 selected work short story poetry extract criticism prose biography humour war literature St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1992 pg. 35-36
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Advertiser 27 January 1992 Z602853 1992 newspaper issue 1992 pg. 25
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Banjo Paterson : His Poetry and Prose A. B. Paterson , Richard Hall , St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 1993 Z467615 1993 selected work short story poetry extract drama criticism biography war literature humour satire St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 1993 pg. 251-253
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Collected Verse of Banjo Paterson A. B. Paterson , Clement Semmler (editor), South Yarra : Viking O'Neil , 1992 Z506304 1992 collected work poetry satire humour Ringwood : Penguin , 1993 pg. 176-177
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Big Rig and Other Poems Gosford : Ashton Scholastic , 1995 Z995615 1995 anthology poetry children's Gosford : Ashton Scholastic , 1995 pg. 22-27
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Classic Australian Verse Maggie Pinkney (editor), Noble Park : Five Mile Press , 2001 Z864790 2001 anthology poetry Noble Park : Five Mile Press , 2001 pg. 205-207
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse Jim Haynes (editor), Sydney : ABC Books , 2002 Z985597 2002 anthology poetry Sydney : ABC Books , 2002 pg. 34-35
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Our Country : Classic Australian Poetry : From the Colonial Ballads to Paterson & Lawson Michael Cook (editor), Seven Hills : Little Hills Press , 2004 Z1266972 2004 anthology poetry Seven Hills : Little Hills Press , 2004 pg. 25-26
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry Library APRIL; APL; The Australian Poetry Resources Internet Library John Tranter , Sydney : 2004- Z1368099 2004- website

    'The Australian Poetry Library (APL) aims to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of Australian poetry by providing access to a wide range of poetic texts as well as to critical and contextual material relating to them, including interviews, photographs and audio/visual recordings.

    This website currently contains over 42,000 poems, representing the work of more than 170 Australian poets. All the poems are fully searchable, and may be accessed and read freely on the World Wide Web. Readers wishing to download and print poems may do so for a small fee, part of which is returned to the poets via CAL, the Copyright Agency Limited. Teachers, students and readers of Australian poetry can also create personalised anthologies, which can be purchased and downloaded. Print on demand versions will be availabe from Sydney University Press in the near future.

    It is hoped that the APL will encourage teachers to use more Australian material in their English classes, as well as making Australian poetry much more available to readers in remote and regional areas and overseas. It will also help Australian poets, not only by developing new audiences for their work but by allowing them to receive payment for material still in copyright, thus solving the major problem associated with making this material accessible on the Internet.

    The Australian Poetry Library is a joint initiative of the University of Sydney and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Begun in 2004 with a prototype site developed by leading Australian poet John Tranter, the project has been funded by a major Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC), CAL and the University of Sydney Library. A team of researchers from the University of Sydney, led by Professor Elizabeth Webby and John Tranter, in association with CAL, have developed the Australian Poetry Library as a permanent and wide-ranging Internet archive of Australian poetry resources.' Source: www.poetrylibrary.edu.au (Sighted 30/05/2011).

    Sydney : 2004-
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Mulga Bill's Bicycle and Other Classics A. B. Paterson , Sydney : ABC Books , 2005 Z1474397 2005 selected work poetry children's Sydney : ABC Books , 2005
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Bush Poems of A. B. (Banjo) Paterson A. B. Paterson , Jack Thompson , Coogee : FinePoets , 2008 Z1546816 2008 selected work poetry Coogee : FinePoets , 2008
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 250-251
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Symphony of Australia Gavin Lockley (composer), Gavin Lockley , Sydney : ABC Books , 2009 Z1635002 2009 anthology poetry Sydney : ABC Books , 2009
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 60 Classic Australian Poems for Children Chris Cheng (editor), Sydney : Random House Australia , 2009 Z1656747 2009 anthology poetry children's

    'The 60 poems in this collection appear in their original, or near original, form and are wide-ranging in their subject matter: animals, the countryside, the struggle of bush life, early transport, sport, growing old, being young and having fun with words! But whether they are humorous, serious or playful, they are simply a joy to read!

    No matter if we grew up reciting these classic poems at school, quote from them on important occasions or are meeting them for the first time, there is no doubt that these classic poems embody what it is to be Australian.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    Sydney : Random House Australia , 2009
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Banjo Paterson Treasury A. B. Paterson , 2013 Z1933217 2013 selected work poetry short story 2013 pg. 73-74
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Best Australian Yarns : And Other True Stories Jim Haynes , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2013 6695586 2013 selected work prose

    'Best Australian Yarns is a substantial and definitive collection of factual and fanciful Aussie stories, humour and anecdotes–the result of decades of researching popular Aussie culture and history and yarning to mates and other colourful characters from all parts of Australia and all walks of life.

    'This collection includes tall stories from the bush, reminiscences from the racetrack and shearing shed, railway yarns, stories from the world of show business, Aboriginal legends and humour, digger yarns from both world wars, ghost stories, monsters, bunyips and yowies... and many things you never knew about our amazing history and the characters who made it–the pioneers, heroes, convicts, bushrangers, eccentrics and brave and forgotten men and women whose fascinating lives and achievements created the Aussie spirit that we all love.

    'While the stories range from poignant to hilarious, many simply describe unusual coincidences, strange occurrences or simple everyday humorous events with a refreshing understatement that vividly evokes a vanishing Australia where looking for a good laugh was a key component of a cheekier national character and a simpler lifestyle.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2013
    pg. 243
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Collins , 1973 .
      image of person or book cover 2931963250433676328.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 30p.p.
      Description: chiefly col. illus.
      ISBN: 0001850032
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Nelson , 1988 .
      Extent: 30p.p.
      ISBN: 0170066991
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 5929298545793531086.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 32p.
      Edition info: 50th Anniversary edition
      Note/s:
      • Published 5th April 2023
      ISBN: 9781460763728

Works about this Work

Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards : Judges' Report : 1974 1974 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 52 1974; (p. 3-5)
Australian Picture Books Nance Donkin , 1974 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 50 1974; (p. 13)

— Review of The Giant Devil Dingo Dick Roughsey , 1973 single work picture book ; The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek Jenny Wagner , 1973 single work picture book ; Mulga Bill's Bicycle A. B. Paterson , 1896 single work poetry
Australian Picture Books Nance Donkin , 1974 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 50 1974; (p. 13)

— Review of The Giant Devil Dingo Dick Roughsey , 1973 single work picture book ; The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek Jenny Wagner , 1973 single work picture book ; Mulga Bill's Bicycle A. B. Paterson , 1896 single work poetry
Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards : Judges' Report : 1974 1974 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 52 1974; (p. 3-5)
Last amended 31 Mar 2023 12:17:05
Subjects:
  • Country towns,
Settings:
  • Bush,
  • Eaglehawk, Bendigo, Bendigo area, Ballarat - Bendigo area, Victoria,
  • Castlereagh, Penrith area, Sydney Outer West, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Walgett, Walgett - Collarenebri area, Far North NSW, New South Wales,
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