Waltzing Matilda is the most famous of Australian songs and is regarded as the Australian national song. The poet Banjo Paterson wrote the words to the song in 1895. He based the words on a story told to him by Robert Macpherson, the owner of the Dagworth Station in central Queensland. Station in Australia and New Zealand refers to a sheep or cattle ranch. The story concerns a swagman who camps by a billabong (water hole) and steals a jumbuck (sheep). A swagman is someone who travels through the bush (Australia’s remote countryside) seeking work. When challenged by a squatter and three troopers (policemen on horseback), he jumps into the billabong and drowns himself rather than be captured. A squatter is the owner of a large rural property. The expression “waltzing Matilda” means carrying a swag. A swag is the Australian name for one’s belongings, wrapped in a blanket and cylindrical in shape.
Paterson originally set the words to the tune of a Scottish song he heard being played by Macpherson’s sister, Christina. A version of “Waltzing Matilda” was performed publicly for the first time in Winton, Queensland, in April 1895. In 1903, the publishers Angus and Robertson bought the words from Paterson. Marie Cowan adapted Paterson’s words and the Scottish tune to produce the version of the song that soon became popular throughout Australia. It celebrates what have been seen as distinctively Australian qualities, such as resistance to those in authority and the refusal to give in. It also expresses sympathy for the battler (person struggling to make a living) rather than the wealthy squatter, an attitude that is also sometimes seen as typically Australian.
Loading the player...Waltzing Matilda
The full text of the song is given below:
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, “Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?” And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, “Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?” Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong: Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee. And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.” And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.” Up rode a squatter, mounted on his Thoroughbred; Down came the troopers, one, two, three: “Who’s that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker-bag? You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me! Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. Who’s that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker-bag? You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!” Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong; “You’ll never catch me alive!” said he; And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me! Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!” And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!”
