Waltzing Matilda is probably Australia’s most famous song. How did it come about? There is a widely held (though disputed) view that it is based on the effects of the shearer’s strike in Queensland in 1891:
In Queensland in 1891 the Great Shearers’ Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, called in the military.
In September 1894, on a station called Dagworth (north of Winton), some shearers were again on strike. It turned violent with the strikers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at the Dagworth Homestead, killing dozens of sheep.
The owner of Dagworth Homestead and three policemen gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister – also known as “French(y)”. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the Combo Waterhole.
Article courtesy of Wikipedia.
Waltzing Matilda
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:
“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 watched and waited till his billy boiled:
“You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me.”
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that 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 the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred.
Down came the troopers, one, two, three.
“Whose 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”
“Whose 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.”
AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson
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