Mr Barrett won the open section of last year's Banjo Paterson Australian Poetry Competition with his poem I'll Swap You Mate, a bushman's reply to Clancy of the Overflow.

It followed two previous recitals of poems he wrote for his grandmother and grandfather's funerals, with the second winning the novice section.

"I've always enjoyed my bush poetry," he said.

"As a kid, it was a way of imagining what it was like for people in this romantic time and you could transport yourself somewhere else and hear amazing stories."

Entries for the competition, which is part of the Banjo Paterson Australian Poetry Festival, cost $5 and close on Wednesday, February 12 and Mr Barrett urged budding poets to "have a go".

"I would love to see groups of people put in entries and come together and have a good time - it's not something that needs to be taken seriously," he said.

Competition organiser Len Banks said the Banjo Paterson festival was a chance to celebrate a great poet and Australian customs and poems could be about almost anything.

"This unique competition is for poets to recite their own original poem, which may be on any topic as long as it can safely be described as good family entertainment," he said.

Poems will be performed on February 22 at Orange Ex-Services' Club, with the winners to attract prize money up to $600.

To access an entry form, click here.

To access the Banjo Paterson Festival program, click here.