Richard Magoffin; Waltzing Matilda singing historian (Great)
Hyfler/Rosner
May 18, 2006, Thursday
Richard Magoffin, OAM, historian, was born on February 6,
1937. He died on May 4, 2006, aged 69.
Sheep farmer turned performing historian of the unofficial
Australian anthem, Waltzing Matilda
RICHARD MAGOFFIN was a poet, balladeer, author, historian,
sheep farmer and grazier, but he was best known as the
world's leading authority on Australia's unofficial anthem,
Waltzing Matilda, written about an incident near his home.
As a result, Magoffin's Matilda Expo, an informal museum at
Kynuna (with a population of just 20) on the "Matilda
Highway" of northwestern Queensland, became a significant
tourist attraction for Australian and foreign visitors after
it opened in the early 1990s. There, or at the nearby Blue
Heeler hotel, Magoffin would sing the original version of
the song, to his own button accordion accompaniment, and
recite its history.
A sign outside a traditional woolshed at his centre read:
"Welcome to the Swagman's Hall of Fame, and Kynuna,
birthplace of Waltzing Matilda, January 1895".
Stricken by cancer, Magoffin closed the museum and sold its
contents to the National Library of Australia, in Canberra,
in December.
Magoffin was the author of 28 books, mostly of history,
including eight specifically about the poignant folk song in
which a sheep-stealing swagman, or hobo, drowns himself in a
billabong, or waterhole, rather than surrender to the
landowner or armed troopers.
His most famous book, Fair Dinkum Matilda, was published in
1973, explaining how the song came about and what it meant.
His last, Waltzing Matilda: Second Edition, with new
information that he had uncovered, came out last year.
That the song was written, towards the end of the 19th
century, by a friend of his grandfather, near his own
birthplace and was based on an incident near his home,
sparked a lifelong interest in its origins, its significance
and its metamorphosis over the years.
Not every Australian historian or folk music expert agrees
with all the details, but Magoffin's version of how the song
came about is widely considered the most accurate. According
to him, it all began after an 1894 union strike by sheep
shearers at Dagworth Station, a sheep farm, near Kynuna,
where Magoffin's grandfather Dick was an early pioneer.
Dagworth Station was run by the Macpherson family, Scottish
"squatters" who were close friends of the Magoffins and who
farmed neighbouring land, winning ownership by default.
During the strike, in September 1894, the shearers
apparently burned down the Dagworth woolshed and killed 140
lambs, after which the body of the union leader Samuel
"Frenchy" Hoffmeister was found by the nearby Combo
billabong on the Diamantina River. It was said that he had
shot himself rather than surrender to police.
A few months later a Sydney solicitor named Andrew Barton
Paterson, who was visiting Dagworth Station as a guest of
the farmer Bob Macpherson, heard his sister, Christina
Rutherford Macpherson, play an old Scottish folk air, Thou
Bonnie Wood of Craigielea, on the zither.
Moved by the stories of defiance and suicide, Paterson
scribbled down some lyrics about a swagman camped by a
billabong under a coolibah (eucalyptus) tree. Paterson's
swagman was not "jolly". That adjective was added in a more
commercial version later.
The term "waltzing matilda" was an outback phrase meaning
something like rambling around with a swag, or bundle of
belongings, but with a double meaning that equated one's
belongings with a woman.
One of two original 1895 manuscripts of the song in
Christina Macpherson's handwriting, both considered
priceless in Australia, was on show at Matilda Expo until
Magoffin was forced to close it. It has now joined the other
version in the National Library.
Another museum in Winton, 60 miles southeast of Kynuna, also
claims to be the birthplace of Waltzing Matilda because
Paterson reportedly first performed it there in public. The
town features a Waltzing Matilda Centre and a fibreglass
monument of a jolly swagman. A recreation of the scene in
which "troopers one, two, three" discover him with a stolen
jumbuck, or sheep, decorates a central square.
It was Magoffin's research which showed that the famous line
"And he sang as he watched and waited till his Billy boiled"
was not the original line by Paterson.
That line was inserted by a musician, Marie Cowan, in 1903,
for sheet music sponsored by Billy Tea. It was later taken
to mean a billy, or tea, can. Cowan also made the swagman
jolly.
Magoffin sang only Paterson's original version to visiting
tourists. "It's our piece of heritage and it matters," he
said shortly before he died. "Waltzing Matilda, with more
than 600 arrangements registered, is the most recorded song
in the world, and it all began here in the middle of a wet
season in a very remote part of the world in a frontier
settlement.
"It's a freedom song that records a turning point in our
history. Paterson wrote it as an allegory, because it wasn't
wise to speak openly. I call it the ballad of the fair go,
because four on to one -three policemen and one station
owner on one harmless swagman -was just not fair. I believe
this is the land of the fair go and we want to hang on to
it."
Magoffin was honoured with Medal of the Order of Australia
in 2000 "for services to Australian folklore as an author of
ballads and songs, and to the preservation of Australian
cultural heritage".
He is survived by his wife, Maria, and by three sons.
Bill Schenley
> and grazier, but he was best known as the world's leading authority on
> Australia's unofficial anthem, Waltzing Matilda, written about an incident
> near his home.
<snipped>
> Magoffin was the author of 28 books, mostly of history, including eight
> specifically about the poignant folk song in which a sheep-stealing
> swagman, or hobo, drowns himself in a billabong, or waterhole, rather than
> surrender to the landowner or armed troopers.
Wow. Who knew there was a "world's leading authority" on "Waltzing
Matilda," let alone someone who wrote eight books about it?
Aje RavenStar
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:ibOdneWCe7PA3vDZ...@rcn.net...
> The Times (London)
>
> May 18, 2006, Thursday
>
>
> Richard Magoffin, OAM, historian, was born on February 6, 1937. He died on
> May 4, 2006, aged 69.
>
> Sheep farmer turned performing historian of the unofficial Australian
> anthem, Waltzing Matilda
>
> RICHARD MAGOFFIN was a poet, balladeer, author, historian, sheep farmer
> and grazier, but he was best known as the world's leading authority on
> Australia's unofficial anthem, Waltzing Matilda, written about an incident
> near his home.
Love this post, as a history minor and pop culture otaku!
> The term "waltzing matilda" was an outback phrase meaning something like
> rambling around with a swag, or bundle of belongings, but with a double
> meaning that equated one's belongings with a woman.
The version I always heard was that "Matilda" was the name given to one of
those fight training dummies with 4 extending arms at right angles, that
rotates on a base. Punch the end panel on one arm and duck before the next
one swings around and smacks you thing. So if you were using one, you were
outnumbered 4 to 1, and eventually it would get you.