[1][2] The poem tells the story of a horseback pursuit to recapture the colt of a prizewinning racehorse that escaped from its paddock and is living with the brumbies (wild horses) of the mountain ranges.

Eventually the brumbies descend a seemingly impassable steep slope, at which point the assembled riders give up the pursuit, except the young protagonist, who spurs his "pony" (small horse) down the "terrible descent" and catches the mob.

It is recorded in the selected works of "Banjo" Paterson that the location of the ride fictionalised in the poem was in the region of today's Burrinjuck Dam, north-west of Canberra in Australian Capital Territory.

He worked around the area before making his way up to Wave Hill, Northern Territory, where a monument has been erected to reflect his role in inspiring the poem.

[3][4] Historian Neville Locker supports this theory, adding that a prior poem had been written about McKeahnie by bush poet Barcroft Boake and that the story had been recounted by a Mrs Hassle to a crowd that included Paterson.

In a report [7] in the papers in 1877, likely to have been seen by Paterson, Battye while Brumby shooting spurs his horse on when it slips its bridle and, powerless over the animal's actions trusts it to follow the wild ones, which it does, catching them after several miles through country thickly timbered and full of holes.

Though Australia was still a set of self-governing colonies under the final authority of Britain, and had not yet trod the path of nationhood, there was a distinct feeling that Australians needed to be united and become as one.