The original collection includes 43 poems[1] by the author that are reprinted from various sources. The book formed part of the publisher's series of "Pocket Editions for the Trenches",[2] designed to fit a serviceman's coat pocket.
On its original publication in Australia The Sunday Times noted "As to the contests of Saltbush Bill, J.P., it is to be regretted that Banjo himself was not responsible for the selection, as he would certainly have omitted quite a number of verses — fugitive lines, poor jokes in rhyme, and
inconsequentialities that, although well enough in the columns of a newspaper, would be better out of a volume."[3]The Australian Worker was similarly unimpressed: "A man with the reputation made by The Man from Snowy River and Rio Grande's Last Race has a very high standard to maintain, and, so far as this latest volume is concerned, it cannot be said that Paterson has maintained it."[4]
