Hay and Hell and Booligal

Hay and Hell and Booligal is a poem by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. Paterson wrote the poem while working as a solicitor with the firm of Street & Paterson in Sydney.cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/arts/headspace/special/booligal/|title=Hay, Hell and Booligal|last=Ladd|first=Mike|work=Headspace|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=2008-10-01] It was first published in the "The Bulletin" on 25 April 1896. [cite web|url=http://www.uq.edu.au/~mlwham/banjo/hay_and_hell_and_booligal.html|title=Hay and Hell and Booligal|work=The Works of Banjo Paterson|publisher=University of Queensland (staff page)|accessdate=2008-10-02] The poem was later included in Paterson's collection "Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses", first published in 1902. [cite book|last=Paterson|first=Andrew Barton 'Banjo'|title=Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses|publisher=Project Gutenberg|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/304/304.txt|accessdate=2008-10-02]

The poem is about the western Riverina town of Booligal; then and now a remote, isolated locality. It compares Booligal unfavourably with the nearby town of Hay and even Hell, recounting a litany of problems with the town—heat, sand, dust, flies, rabbits, mosquitos, snakes and drought—with humorous intent.cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Booligal/2005/02/17/1108500192811.html|title=Booligal|date=2004-02-08|work=SMH Travel|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|accessdate=2008-10-01] "Hell" may also refer to a nearby property called "Hell's Gate". The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia places "Hell" at nearby One Tree, on the stock route between Hay on the Murrumbidgee River and Booligal on the Lachlan River.

The poem concludes with the lines:

Booligal was indeed the victim of many natural disasters around this time. As well as the usual droughts and floods, in 1890 the town was victim to a rabbit plague. Despite poisoning and "drives" killing hundreds and thousands of rabbits, the pasture was severely depleted. This was quickly followed by another plague; this time of grasshoppers who ate everything that grew, including the produce in the Chinese gardens.cite book|last=Clancy|first=Eric|title=The Overflow of Clancy: The Story of Thomas and Anne Clancy and their descendants|publisher=E.G. Clancy|location=Lane Cove|chapter=North of the Border|isbn=0959909214|url=http://www.webcore.com.au/clancy/07_ch7.html|accessdate=2008-10-02] Nevertheless, the description of the town was not popular with Booligal residents:quote|The inhabitants of Booligal rather resent their village being immortalised in "Banjo" Paterson's famous poem, and ever try to show that the poet made an error of judgment.|R.B. Ronald|

The phrase "Hay and Hell and Booligal" or its variant "Hay, Hell and Booligal" has become part of Australian folklore. In 1897, one year after the poems' publication "The Age" in Melbourne reported:quote|From Echuca to Booligal a straight line running due north for 175 miles the situation may be tersely summed up in one word - desolation all dust and desolation, dying stock and disheartened settlers there is this year a modicum of truth in the expression, -Hay, Hell, and Booligal|The Age|

The author and folklorist Bill Wannan titled his collection of Australian bush humour "Hay, Hell and Booligal". [cite web|url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2970696|title= Bill Wannan's Hay, hell and Booligal : Australian bush humour|work=NLA Catalogue|publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=2008-10-01]

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