Although Banjo Paterson didn’t write a poem about the former High Country gold mining town Kiandra, he did refer to it in the poem below:

A Mountain Station

And sometimes under sunny skies, 

Without an explanation, 

The Murrumbidgee used to rise 

And overflow the station. 

But this was caused (as now I know) 

When summer sunshine glowing 

Had melted all Kiandra's snow 

And set the river going.

At one time Paterson was vice president of the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club. The Age (4 July 1899) recorded a large parliamentary party led by Mr C A Kerry of the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club and President of the Sydney Alpine Club, as well as a ladies party and Mr Paterson ‘signalled their intention of attending the snow shoeing carnival.’ 

During the Second World War, my father Tom Mitchell wrote to his wife Elyne explaining that he was becoming quite a ‘Banjo’ fan, but he remarked in July 1941 that while Paterson ‘wrote a classic poem in ‘The Man From Snowy River’ he left unsung the Snowy when it really was snowy’, that is in winter!’ Paterson is better known for his equestrian knowledge and skills than he was as a skier.