Out of this vortex … Waltzing Matilda!

The last load of wool leaves the property.
 

It was another period of mayhem

It was the worst of times. Australia was caught up in the depression of the early 1890s, the scar of which had contributed directly to the origins of a political labour movement and Federation.

By the 1880s, Australia was well and truly riding on the sheep’s back.

The country’s burgeoning riches emanated largely from the bales of fine wool which were shipped to the woollen mills in America, Europe and England.

When the depression hit, the pastoralists resolved to reduce wages, starting in the shearing sheds.

This intense antagonism, which had been simmering between capital and labour, finally exploded. Strikes and lockouts were the order of the day.

The Shearers’ Wars had begun.

The powerful and wealthy pastoralists (squatters) mustered their forces; they decided that it was their right to hire anyone they choose - scabs and non-union labour. The pastoralists were aided and abetted by the colonial governments, the military, troopers and police.
 

Troopers with cannons and Gatling guns ready to fire. The striking shearers were armed.
 

In one small Queensland centre alone, Barcaldine, over 1500 troopers with cannons and Gatling guns confronted one thousand armed shearers who were attacking a train loaded with scabs. 

Over 800 shearers were arrested, twenty of their leaders were sentenced to seven years hard labour.

After several violent clashes between shearers, police and unionists, seven woolsheds were burned to the ground. The last property in Queensland to suffer was Dagworth Station at Kynuna. 

A band of militant shearers torched the woolshed incinerating up to 140 lambs.

The lawyer and bush poet Banjo Paterson was in Winton at the time visiting the fiancé he never married, Sarah Riley. He visited Dagworth Station.

For two years, from 1892, Paterson and Henry Lawson staged a “rhyming match” in the bushman’s newspaper. They regarded it as a bit of a lark, and both poets “slam-banged” away at each other until, says Paterson, “till they ran out of material.”
 

Henry Lawson said his fray with
Banjo Paterson was a bit of a lark.
In the end, they run out of material.
Paterson wrote a song which would
became Australia’s unofficial anthem.

During this historic literary fray Lawson, who was also touched by the plight of the shearers, wrote Freedom on the road.

Wallaby, which heralded the call for mass resistance, brotherhood and the struggle against greed.

Paterson became involved in the Queensland conflict as a mediator. He composed Waltzing Matilda, its pure and captivating verses signalling the fundamental shift in the romantic rhetoric and ethos of the bush workers.

Over one hundred years ago, the song Waltzing Matilda had transcended the war-cry of the shearers, pastoralists, unionists and rebels, to become one of the best remembered songs - Australia’s unofficial anthem. - Frank Morris.

Waltzing Matilda, Australia’s patriotic song

First Steps: The White Man!

Torres made history!
 

Westward with Torres

Some 30 years after Francis Drake sailed westward out of the Pacific, three Spanish ships found the island now known as the New Hebrides.

One of these ships, the 120 ton Almiranta - painted with no little art - under the command of Luis Vaez de Torres, left the New Hebrides in August 1606. The ship was bound for the Philippines.

Torres aimed to reach his destination by passing along the north of New Guinea. But contrary winds made it impossible for him to hold his course.
 

It was 160 years later that a European  
made another journey of the same 
Ilk as the Spanish seamen.

History was made. For Torres turned his ship to the south of New Guinea, heading westward through the “many shoals and great currents” of the passage, which some 180 years later, was named Torres Strait by the British Admiralty.

This was the first recorded journey through the Strait. In passing Cape York, Torres may well have seen the Australian mainland and sailed close to the Cape, but his narrative is vague.

Torres makes no mention of sighting anything more than “very large islands.” Cook through sailed through the Strait in 1770 - more than 160 years later. Cook was on another journey through the passage by a European. - Adapted by Frank Morris. Tucker & Co Pty Ltd.
 

Did you know? 

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