One hundred and twenty-five years ago a mostly deaf, mostly drunk, but promising young writer by the name of Henry Lawson was sent to far-west New South Wales by the Bulletin magazine, to discover 'the real Australia'.

He spent less than a year in and around Bourke but his experiences made such a mark he spent the rest of his life writing about it.

A 'stupid endeavour'

The story is told that Lawson was sent out by the editor of the Bulletin, J F Archibald, in 1892 not only to gather stories of life in the Australian outback, but to dry out.

He was gaining a reputation as a drunk and a trouble maker in Sydney.

According to historian Paul Roe this trip gave him an authenticity and depth.

"His time in Bourke really lifted him out of Sydney where he was looking at life from the bottom of a beer glass," Dr Roe said.

"It shaped him profoundly, put a rougher edge on him; he was no longer the slightly morose guy sitting around in the city, he was out there with a lot of robust men around him."

Bourke poet and musician Andrew Hull once followed the footsteps of Lawson, retracing a 215-kilometre journey he took on foot, in the middle of summer, from Bourke to Hungerford on the Queensland border.

Mr Hull said he believed the journey gave Lawson a new perspective on life.

"If you go through that experience in the middle of summer, in the middle of nowhere, with everything you're relying on on you back, there's an absolute isolation," he said.

"The only way you can find meaning in anything, in this stupid endeavour of walking to Hungerford in the middle of summer, is to look for the really central, fundamental bits of humanity that we all share."

Hungerford post office, circa 1891-1900. ( Supplied: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales )

'Grit and generosity'

Lawson's writing about outback life is a mix of bitter realism and romantic nostalgia.

… there was nothing beautiful in Ninety-one and Ninety-two / Save grit and generosity of hearts that broke and healed again / The hottest drought that ever blazed could never parch the hearts of men … (Bourke by Henry Lawson)

Mr Hull said that combination is what made Lawson so accurate in his portrayal of the times and the area.

"His bleak view of the world was entirely valid; it was a bleak existence for those people," he said.

"It doesn't make it any less human that it's bleak; to me it makes it 100 times more real, and more honest."

Dr Roe said Lawson's ability to capture people's pain and humour shone in his portrayal of the outback.

"He was an acute observer of people," he said.

"Because he was deaf he trained his other senses, his sketches of people were, I think second to none, he captured some brilliant characters.

"Will Ogilvy wrote a line 'the swagmen nursed the bones of a wasted life' — Lawson walked the track and listened to men like that, he captured their pain, but he also saw the funny side of things."

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Inspiring a new generation

One hundred and twenty-five years on, does Lawson have anything more to offer a new generation of Australians?

Dr Roe has taught Lawson to generations of high school students as an English and history teacher. He has also been taking people on 'poet's treks' for 25 years, visiting the sights of Lawson's life and writings in the far west.

He said the writing was timeless and still drew people to the area.

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"In this era, young people really like road trips, they're getting out, crossing the world to look at all kinds of places," he said.

"I've noticed that this poet's trek is sort of like a pilgrimage and we're starting to see younger people come on it.

"One guy came on the poet's trek and went away and wrote a musical, other people have written their own stories or poems.

"Maybe the younger generation needs to take time to come and listen to what Henry Lawson said then, look out on this world now and think, there are stories still happening here that need to be written and told and painted and sung."

Mr Hull said discovering Lawson's work on a poet's trek as a young man was an inspiration.

"By the time I'd left school I only knew of the English poets. I was pretty dismissive of bush poetry; it was a bit jingoistic," he said.

"But being talked into going on the poets trek, all of a sudden I understood Lawson was just a fantastic writer.

"For him to choose this part of the word that I was already from to go and express that humanity and look at the human condition and describe it so well — he's my absolute favourite."