Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson was born on 17 June 1867, in a tent on the goldfields of Grenfell in Central New South Wales, Australia. It was a hard life for families on the goldfields. When Henry Lawson was just a child, he lost his hearing due to a severe ear infection. By the time he was 14, he was completely deaf, and yet, despite his disability, he became one of the most celebrated poets in Australian history.