Yeoval historian and museum curator Alf Cantrell has hailed this year's Banjo Paterson Festival as an even bigger success than last year.
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"I think it's been better than last year - a lot better than last year," Mr Cantrell said.
"I know the amount of people participating in the poetry reading and reciting is up, probably a fifty percent increase int he number of people that came here last year. We had some wonderful entertainment."
Proceedings were visited by many from around the nation, with one visitor even coming from Tuena with stories about riding through Snowy River and some exquisite banjo playing skills that were well received.
"We had a lady from Yeoval, who played and sang, and poetry recitists from all over; Queensland, Victoria, Sydney as well as local and everyone got their chance at reading out a few poems," Mr Cantrell said.
"It was a lovely day - a beautiful day out in the shade, everyone sat together and it was brilliant, really good."
In Mr Cantrell's view, it's as much Paterson's larger-than-life adventurer history as it is his poetry that draws the layman to him as a unique touchstone of Australian cultural history.
"Of course, that's the way the Australians wanted to be known; the bushmen, every Australian right up until the present day. That's the sort of person that Australians are seen as."
While that might be what sparks most people's interest in Paterson, for Mr Cantrell it has always been the man's poetry that has fascinated and inspired him.
"You can shut your eyes and you're there when you're experiencing a Patterson poem, he'd mastered the English language," Mr Cantrell said.
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"I think I love him because I can close my eyes and I can imagine all the characters that he has and that's my kind of Australia; I don't like the city, I get lost in the cities, but I love the bush."
According to Mr Cantrell, the Australia of Paterson's day doesn't exist anymore, and the Australia of his own day is rapidly vanishing too.
"We've lived in Yeoval for thirty four years, when our kids first started to go to school here there were 237 children in the school, today there's 140," Mr Cantrell said.
"That's how many families have left the district. That's how the countryside is changing. Unfortunately, I think, it's changed for the worst."
"That's why we have the museum here, to attract people back to Yeoval, people drive through and see our flags and our signs."
"We're trying to get back things that are lost."
