Mattinbgn: start article, needs work
”’Hay and Hell and Booligal”’ is a poem by the Australian [[bush poet]] [[Banjo Paterson]]. The poem was written in 1896.
The poem is about the western [[New South Wales]] town of [[Booligal, New South Wales|Booligal]]; then and now a remote, isolated locality. It compares Booligal unfavourably with the nearby town of [[Hay, New South Wales|Hay]] and even [[Hell]], recounting a litany of problems with the town—heat, sand, dust, flies, rabbits, mosquitos, snakes and drought—with humorous intent.<ref name=’SMHTravel’>{{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}}</ref> ‘Hell’ may also refer to a nearby property called ‘Hell’s Gate’.<ref name=’SMHTravel’ />
The poem includes the lines:
:::”We’d have to stop!’ With bated breath
:::”We prayed that both in life and death
::::”Our fate in other lines might fall;
:::”Oh, send us to our just reward
:::”In Hay or Hell, but, gracious Lord,
::::”Deliver us from Booligal!”
The phrase ‘Hay and Hell and Booligal’ or its variant ‘Hay, Hell and Booligal’ has become part of Australian folklore. The author [[ Bill Wannan]] titled his book collecting Australian bush humour ”Hay, Hell and Booligal”.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:Poetry by Banjo Paterson]]
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(Via Wikipedia – New pages [en].)