Slim Dusty … Australia’s Ulster-Scot singing cowboy

The highlight of his career was the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when he sang ‘Waltzing Matilda’ to a global audience of nearly four billion. As he observed, ‘Just me, the world and my guitar … amazing.’

Slim Dusty epitomised an idealised image of the Australian outback – a working stockman with his cowboy hat, guitar, and a vast repertoire of Australian bush ballads.

He even wore his iconic cowboy hat when he met the Queen in Brisbane in 1992. He was granted permission to keep his hat on – as acknowledgement of how much the hat was an integral part of the legend. (To remove it perhaps might have required surgery.) Photographs convey the Queen’s immense pleasure at the encounter.

Hugh Kirkpatrick and Mary Magee, Slim Dusty’s paternal grandparents, were married on October 19 1881 in Mountpottinger Methodist Church in east Belfast.

Hugh was a butcher and she was the daughter of poulterer.

They emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney on April 4 1884. Slim Dusty’s father was 11-months-old when he arrived in Australia. A second son George was born at Armidale in June 1889.

Mary dumped her husband in Armidale because of his gambling addiction, crossed the Great Dividing Range with her two children and relocated the family in the town of Kempsey, New South Wales. In 1902-03 she trained in midwifery in Sydney at the Home Training School and Lying-in Hospital, Newtown, and then set about establishing the first hospitals for women in the Macleay district. She thereby earned herself a place in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Slim Dusty was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick on June 13 1927 at Kempsey. He was the youngest child of David Kirkpatrick and Mary Partridge. To avoid confusion with his father, he was known as Gordon within the family.

As a boy, Gordon dreamed of becoming a country music singer. He wrote his first song (‘The Way the Cowboy Dies’) at the age of 10, began calling himself Slim Dusty in 1938, made his first recording in 1942 and signed his first contract with Columbia (which later became EMI).

Dusty worked part-time as a ranch stockman until 1954 when he embarked on a full-time musical career, touring with his first traveling show, the ‘Slim Dusty Show’.

He released his recording of ‘A Pub with No Beer’ in 1957, a song that was written by his friend Gordon Parsons who is widely supposed to have been inspired by Dan Sheahan’s poem entitled ‘A Pub Without Beer’ which recounts the ‘devastation’ inflicted on the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham in Queensland through the interruption of its beer supply. (However, Parsons was adamant that his lyrics referred to a pub close to his boyhood home at Taylor’s Arm in New South Wales. Thus, two pubs compete for the distinction.)

With respect to his friendship with Gordon Parsons, Dusty has explained, ‘There’s nothing I would do for Ned [Parsons] and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me. And that’s how we go through life – doing absolutely nothing for each other.’

In 1958 Dusty received Australia's first gold record award for the song and it became the first single from an Australian artist to feature in the British charts, peaking at number three. The song has been translated into seven languages and is very popular in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.

Some people have noticed the tune’s similarity with Stephen Foster’s ‘Beautiful Dreamer’. Stephen Foster, ‘The Father of American Music’, was of course another Ulster Scot.

In 2001, the song was ranked number five on the list of ‘Best Australian Songs’ compiled by the Australasian Performing Right Association.

It has been recorded by other artists, including Johnny Cash, the Dubliners and Midnight Oil, but none of them can match Slim Dusty’s rendition.

Slim Dusty died of kidney cancer at the age of 76 on September 19 2003.

At the time of his death he was working on his 106th album, he had sold more than seven million records and had achieved over 70 gold and platinum album certifications.

Although he would never have claimed to be a religious man, his repertoire extended to country gospel, and he liked to finish his shows with some gospel music.

In his honour a state funeral was held in Sydney cathedral to celebrate his legacy. It was attended by John Howard, the Australian prime minister, the leader of the federal opposition, and the Queensland premier.

Phillip Jensen, the Anglican dean of Sydney, paid tribute to Dusty by leading the congregation of family, statesmen, fans and musicians in the singing of ‘A Pub with No Beer’.

Slim Dusty received many distinctions during his lifetime.

In 1970 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Dusty was awarded the MBE in recognition of his service to the entertainment industry.

In 1984 Dusty’s life was the subject of a feature film entitled ‘The Slim Dusty Movie’.

In 1997 the general manager of the Grand Ole Opry invited him to perform in Nashville in recognition of his contribution to country music.

On Australia Day (January 26) 1998, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of service to Australian country music and the entertainment industry as a composer and performer.

He was featured in the 2001 Australia Post 'Australian Legends' postage stamp series, on two 45c stamps and a stamped envelope.

The Royal Australian Mint issued a one-dollar coin to celebrate his life in 2013.

Twenty years after his death, Australians still fondly regard this Ulster Scot as having been a national treasure.

Anne Kirkpatrick, Dusty’s daughter, is an Australian country music singer and her brother David is an accomplished singer-songwriter.