Jim Grahame

James William Gordon was born on 23 October 1874 in Bloody Gully, a mining camp near Creswick, Victoria,{{Cite news |date=13 August 1949 |title=Death at Leeton of Poet James Gordon; Wrote as 'Jim Grahame' |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145544098 |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=Daily Advertiser |location=Wagga Wagga, Australia |page=2 |via=Trove}} the son of John and Jane (née Morgan) Gordon.{{Cite news |last=Stewart |first=Howard |date=28 November 1947 |title=From Sydney: Jim Grahame |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156160384?searchTerm=grahame |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |pages=1 |via=Trove}} Gordon's father was Scottish and his mother of Welsh descent. The family lived in Balmoral, Victoria,{{Cite news |date=22 Apr 1949 |title=Australian Poet at Hamilton – Crowded Town Hall Welcomes Jim Grahame |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156105267 |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=The Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |pages=5}} where Gordon attended school, leaving at 13.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Gordon spent the next twenty years working at a variety of jobs (including jackeroo, horse-breaker, bullock driver, opal miner, jockey, and drover) before he became a station manager on the Darling River in New South Wales.

Later, he was attached to the government field staff as an inspector of orchards at the Yanco Irrigation Area, near Leeton, New South Wales doing his rounds by horse and sulky.

Gordon was also, at one stage, Treasurer, Secretary and President of the Writers and Artists Union.

Gordon began submitting poems to newspapers about 1900. Many sources suggest Gordon's first published work was published in The Worker in 1902. Certainly his "Ode to the Handy Man" appeared that year in the Hillston Spectator and Lachlan River Advertiser.{{cite news|work=The Hillston Spectator and Lachlan River Advertiser|location=NSW, Australia|date=25 October 1902|page =4|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131186888?searchTerm=%22Balm%20Oral%22|title=Ode to the Handy Man|access-date=2 June 2025}} In 1903, his first verse, titled "Boundary-Riding", appeared in The Bulletin magazine{{cite news |date=10 Dec 1903 |title=Boundary-Riding |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-722596016/view?partId=nla.obj-722602640#page/n0/mode/1up |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Bulletin |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |location=Sydney, Australia |page=34 |volume=24 |issue=1243}} It was also reprinted in 1905.{{cite news |date=10 February 1905 |title=Selected Poetry: Boundary-Riding |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196777182 |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Port Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle and Flinders Chronicle |location=South Australia |page=3}} All of these appeared under the pen-name "Balm Oral".

Gordon also began to have other written contributions accepted by The Bulletin around this time, under the pen-names "Balm Oral" and "Poor Hawk".{{cite news |date=26 May 1904 |title=Balm Oral about Bent's Trains |work=The Bulletin |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |location=Sydney, Australia |page=12 |volume=25 |issue=1267}}{{cite news |date=18 Aug 1904 |title=Balm Oral writes about how our good land is wasted by the mortgagee |work=The Bulletin |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |location=Sydney, Australia |page=17 |volume=25 |issue=1279}}{{cite news |date=17 May 1906 |title=Poor Hawk – The Governor-General came to Bourke |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-638088832/view?sectionId=nla.obj-646357184&searchTerm=%22The+Governor-General+came+to+Bourke%22&partId=nla.obj-638206383# |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Bulletin |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |location=Sydney, Australia |page=10 |volume=27 |issue=1370}}{{cite news |date=14 June 1906 |title=Poor Hawk – Maoriland pug |work=The Bulletin |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |location=Sydney, Australia |page=24 |volume=27 |issue=1374}}

In 1940, Melbourne's Bread and Cheese Club put out a collection of Gordon's poems in a book titled Call of the Bush.

At 72, Gordon began to contribute a regular column to the Murrumbidgee Irrigator with the title "By Lane and Highway".{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

In 1947, as part of an honour night held for his 73rd birthday, the citizens of Leeton published a compilation of his poems in a book titled "Under Wide Skies". The Testimonial Committee tracked down all of Gordon's known poems except the poem "The King is Shorn".{{Cite news |date=27 June 1947 |title=To Honour Jim Gordon: Excellent Response to Organiser's Mission |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156159797 |access-date=2 June 2025 |work=Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales}}{{Cite journal |date=4 September 1935 |title=The King is Shorn |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-553457965/view?sectionId=nla.obj-568280099&searchTerm=The+King+is+Shorn&partId=nla.obj-553469335 |journal=The Bulletin |pages=20 |via=Trove}}

Gordon had a life-long friendship with the poet Henry Lawson. The pair first met in Bourke, New South Wales in September 1892 when Lawson had been sent there by his publisher to write and to dry out while Gordon moved there on his doctor's recommendation to escape the cold, damp Victorian countryside (where he suffered repeated chest infections).{{Cite book |last=Bryan |first=Gregory |title=Mates: The friendship that sustained Henry Lawson |publisher=New Holland Publishers |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-74257-887-3 |oclc=961698287 |location=Chatswood, Australia; London, England; Auckland, New Zealand}}

The pair's first trek together was to Fort Bourke station, where they worked as roustabouts, in late October 1892. On 27 December 1892, they trekked from Bourke to Hungerford and back, a round trip of over 400km, arriving back in Bourke about 6 February 1893.{{Clarify|reason=Is this the Hungerford in NSW or Queensland?|date=May 2025}} After this trek, the pair lost contact for over 20 years; but they renewed their friendship in 1916, when they met again in Leeton.{{Clarify|reason=How and where?|date=June 2025}}

In 1917, Lawson persuaded Gordon to adopt a different writing name to 'Poor Hawk',{{Cite news |author=W. J. |date=17 June 1939 |title=Poet of the Bush: 80,000 Miles in a 'Literary Sulky' |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205631331 |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, Australia |pages=11 |quote="Your poetry is too good," said Lawson "for a pen name. Besides, people like to think that one of their favourite poets is a real flesh and blood character with a proper handle to his mug. Cut out the pen name and call yourself 'Jim Grahame'. It's got a good brothy twist in it, and it isn't so far removed from your own name anyway."}} which resulted in him adopting the pen name Jim Grahame. Lawson also advised Gordon on ways to get his work published and also how to play one paper against another in order to get better rates for the poems that did make it to print.

File:Jim Gordon and Leigh Marchant.jpg

Gordon and his family moved to Leeton in 1921. There he came to be known as "Leeton's poet".{{Cite news |date=2 December 1947 |title=Civic Dinner to Jim Grahame – Citizens and Visitors Honour the Poet |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156174199 |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |pages=2}}

In 1947, an honour night was held for Gordon at the local Roxy Theatre in Leeton for his 73rd birthday. This was attended by some 600 people and was also recorded and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.{{cite news |date=1947-12-02 |title=Wonderful Scenes of Pageantry and Glamorous Music of the Bush; At Gordon Honour Night |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-murrumbidgee-irrigator-wonderful-sce/173399059/ |newspaper=The Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |volume=32 |number=94}} Gordon's contributions to Australian literature were recognised at the national level in 1947, when he was awarded a Commonwealth Literary pension, presented to him at the honour night. The event was also marked by the presentation to Gordon of a copy of a collection of his works titled Under Wide Skies. The Testimonial Committee responsible for the compiling his poetry was led by Leigh Marchant, a local orchardist, Rotarian and close friend of Gordon's. They succeeded in tracking down all of his known poems to date but one.

Two other civic events were held in Gordon's honour in 1949 in his birthplace of Creswick, Victoria{{Cite news |date=16 August 1949 |title=Vale Jim Grahame – Australian Poet (Mr. J. W. Gordon) Passes Away Suddenly |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156103783 |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |pages=1 |via=Trove}} and childhood hometown of Hamilton, Victoria.

In 1902, Gordon married Celia McIntyre, the daughter of a wealthy grazier, John McIntyre. She was cut off by her family for marrying beneath her station.Family letter to Phillipa Hollenkamp (Jim's great-grand-daughter)     Fri 24 April 2009{{Independent source inline|date=June 2025}}

In 1912, the couple and their two older children moved to the Yanco Irrigation Area in New South Wales near Leeton where the couple's other children were born.

Gordon died on 12 August 1949 at his home in Leeton; he was 74. He was survived by his wife, one son, and three daughters. He was predeceased by one daughter and a son who died in World War II.

After his death, a newly established Leeton sub-division of Gralee and the Gralee School were named after him – combining the names "Grahame" and "Leeton".{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Grahame Park, Leeton in Quandong Street was also named for him{{Cite news |date=1953-06-23 |title=Gralee School official opening |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156125324 |access-date=2025-06-18 |work=Murrumbidgee Irrigator}} in 1949.{{Cite news |date=2 August 1949 |title=Arbour Day for Jim Grahame |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156105625 |access-date=3 June 2025 |work=The Murrumbidgee Irrigator |location=Leeton, New South Wales |pages=3}} In 1953, Gralee School opened in a section of the park made available by the local council.

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Category:1874 births

Category:1949 deaths

Category:20th-century Australian male writers

Category:20th-century Australian poets

Category:Australian male poets

Category:Colony of New South Wales people

Category:Writers from New South Wales