Les Murray, sometimes referred to as the 'Bush Bard', was born in Nabiac, New South Wales, on 17 October 1938. An only child, he grew up on his grandparents' farm in Bunyah, a rural district to which he would later return to permanently settle with his own family in 1985. Murray decided to become a poet at 18. Educated at Taree High School, he matriculated to the University of Sydney in 1957. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 2001. Murray's first publication in 1965, a collection of poems of which he was co-author, launched his career. He went on to publish over thirty volumes of poetry and two verse novels, and edited several collections of poetry and prose. Murray received numerous literary awards and prizes, including The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in 1984 and 1993, the T.S. Eliot Prize in 1996 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1998. Murray died aged 80 in 2019 in Taree.