01/09/2026
Today is Wattle Day, marking the first day of Spring and celebrating Australia's national floral emblem. Yet the wattle is more than a symbol of seasonal change and renewal. In Australian art and literature, it has appeared as a profound symbol of national identity and belonging.
Henry Lawson's famous 1891 poem 'Freedom on the Wallaby' drew a line between the Eureka Rebellion of 1854 and the golden wattle, connecting it to the struggles of working Australians in the decades that followed. He used the image of 'blood on the wattle' to transforms the flower into a powerful symbol of collective action against tyranny.
Lawson's later poem, 'The Wattle' (c.1910), can be read as a companion piece. Though here the wattle is not tied to a single battle, but to devotion to Australia itself. Lawson asks who has earned the right to wear the wattle, and answers through a lifetime of loyalty and sacrifice.
The poem captures a growing sense of national identity and allegiance to Australia in the post-Federation era. Written at a time when political tensions were rising across Europe, only a few years before the outbreak of the First World War, Lawson's embrace of the golden wattle as a symbol of sacrifice in defence of the nation appears prescient.
"The Wattle"
I saw it in the days gone by,
When the dead girl lay at rest,
And the wattle and the native rose
We placed upon her breast.
I saw it in the long ago
(And I've seen strong men die),
And who, to wear the wattle,
Hath better right than I?
I've fought it through the world since then,
And seen the best and worst,
But always in the lands of men
I held Australia first.
I wrote for her, I fought for her,
And when at last I lie,
Then who, to wear the wattle, has
A better right than I?
- Henry Lawson (c.1910)
Photo: Wattle in bloom on the Bunny Trail, Eureka Stockade Memorial Park. Photo: Tanya Dickens.
City of Ballarat Ballarat Botanical Gardens Eureka Stockade Holiday Park Wattle Day Association Inc. Ballarat Historical Society
