AustLit

In the preface to Australian Poems, Robert Tait's widow Amelia wrote that her late husband's ambition was 'to be to his own native land what Burns was to Scotland, but this was not to be'. Tait's poem, 'Robert Burns', is included in Australian Poems. Tait's parents, William and Margaret, had migrated to Australia from Scotland, selecting land and making their home on the banks of Alligator Creek, below the township of Yaamba, Queensland. Their son Robert was educated privately and at the Yaamba and Mt Morgan state schools. Later he was a farmer and grazier who contributed regularly to the Rockhampton Capricornia.