Waltzing Matilda: It’s a simple ditty that roamed round the world

Aussies didn’t know that they were singing a song about a swagman. But, nevertheless, they left us with a legacy.

The swagmen. They were an embattled outsider – a sundowner, bagmen, battlers and whalers. They were itinerant Australians of varying kinds who roamed the tracks of the bush either in search of work; or merely seeking enough food and nutriment to keep themselves alive.

Usually, the whaler kept to the banks of the larger rivers like the Darling and Murrumbidgee. Most of these outback types have almost disappeared.

There were considerable numbers of them from the time of the sixties. After the alluvial gold had petered out in the main fields and onwards until the First World War period.

They had a common bond that associated this group: they carried a “swag”, “drum” or “matilda”.

To “hump the bluey”, “hump the drum” or “waltz matilda” meant simply to carry a swag.

Matilda, as an expression, was not coined by Banjo Paterson for his famous song, Waltzing Matilda, but it does not seen to have had a wide currency before that song really made it nationally known.

Of the song itself, much has been written.

Banjo Paterson, the Australian troubadour who wrote the words, died in 1941. He had no knowledge he had written one of the most celebrated ballards sweeping through bombed Britain.1

We didn’t know about the defiant swagman at the “local” …  whether the minstrel boy of the bush country had just passed on and left us a legacy, a drinking song, that went as well with old and mild as it does with Australian ale.

All we knew was that we couldn’t sing Waltzing Matilda … without thinking of … the wide-brimmed Digger hats of Tobruk “Rats” and … the aircrews of RAAF.

For many of us, this wryly excitable, sadly rollicking Australian song was the first stimulus to a new curiosity about the far-flung land.

To the un-Australian or pre-Australian ear, Waltzing Matilda is strange and fascinating; for migrants, it is the Excelsior of their great adventure.

Read the full version of Larry Boys in Bill Wannan’s The Australian, page 133.

Waltzing Matilda: Your Glossary

Australia slanguage! Imagine these terms being expressed in a broad Australia drawl!

Akubra: A brand of bushman’s hat made from rabbit skins. It is widely used now to describe any form of bushman’s hat.

Bag: To knock or disparage.

Banker: Overflowing river.

Barney: Fight or brawl.

Battler: Someone who keeps trying and deserves better of life.

Bitser: Mongrel dog.

Bloke: A male; also “The Boss” in a shearing shed.

Blue Heeler: Australian cattle dog renowned for its quick reflexes.

Bluey: A blanket; also, a parking fine.

Hump a bluey: Carry the swag.

Boggi: Shearer’s handpiece.

Bowyang: String that bush workers have tied around their trouser legs.

Brumby: A wild horse named from either booramby, native for horse; or from James Brumby, an early settler, known for his horses.

A fair go: Giving a person an equitable opportunity; a fair choice

Billabong: An arm of a river, made by water flowing from the mainstream, after rain or a flood; a pool or lagoon is formed when the water level falls.

Federation: The formation of the colonies into the commonwealth of Australia on January 1, 1901.

Jumbuck: A sheep

Labor Party: Formed out of the continuing defeats of the big strikes in 1890s, led union officials to press for the forming of a labour party “as an additional means of seeking union objectives.” The first Federal Labor Party was elected in 1904, but it could not pass its own legislation; the Ministry resigned four months later.

Mate: A comrade, fellow worker; habitual companion.

Mateship: A bond between equal partners; an inviolable mateship is regarded a characteristic Australian virtue.

Swagman: An itinerant worker, carrying a swag, in search of employment.

Tucker bag: A bag to carry food and drink; usually carried by swagmen/women.

<< Adapted by Frank Morris from this Waltzing Matilda presentation book.

Slim Dusty - Waltzing Matilda