Where the Dead Men Lie

The Story of Barcroft Boake, Bush Poet of The Monaro

Barcroft Boake’s star blazed briefly and brightly as an Australian bush poet for little more than a year before he took his own life by hanging himself by his stockwhip in 1892 on the shore of Sydney Harbour. Barcroft’s life was touched by romance, adventure and, finally, tragedy. In Where the Dead Men Lie, his story is told as an imaginative work of fiction, to bring the characters to life. Barcroft rode with Charlie McKeahnie, who is reputed to be one of the famed mountain horsemen Banjo Paterson had in mind when he wrote The Man From Snowy River. Barcroft also fell in love with Charlie’s sisters. It has been suggested he killed himself for the love of a McKeahnie girl. After Barcroft left the McKeahnie homestead in 1888, he headed north, seeking excitement and adventure as a stockman and a drover, travelling as far as the Diamantina River in Queensland. Throughout his travels he wrote regularly to his father. Luckily, a number of his original and interesting letters have been preserved and they have been woven into the story. Was it May, or was it Jean McKeahnie that he truly loved? Why did he kill himself, just as he was gaining recognition as a poet? These are the questions this book tries to answer.