One of Australia’s most respected poets, Robert Adamson, died on 16 December, aged 79. Known as the ‘poet of the Hawkesbury River’ due to the area north-west of Sydney providing the inspiration and life force of his work, Adamson was born on 17 May 1943 in Sydney and grew up in Neutral Bay, NSW.
Despite such an illustrious career, Adamson had a difficult youth, with stints in juvenile detention and jail. However, he found solace in poetry during his time at Gosford Boys Home (which had several names, but is now known as Mount Penang Juvenile Justice centre), when he was inspired by the works of Shelley, Mallarmé and Rimbaud before forming his own poetic voice.
