Waltzing Matilda

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"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for traveling by walking (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of a swagman (itinerant worker) boiling a billy at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (pastoral landholder), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The original lyrics were composed in 1895 by the Australian poet Banjo Paterson, to a tune played by Christina MacPherson based on her memory of Thomas Bulch's march Craigielee, which was in turn based on James Barr's setting for Robert Tannahill's poem "Thou Bonnie...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Christina Macpherson, Public domain