WALTZING MATILDA Lyrics, Version 2
irg...@csc.anu.edu.au
> Recently I posted the lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda". Subsequently, I
> found a set of lyrics that I believe are closer to Paterson's original
> set. At the risk of overblowing your senses with Australiania, here are
> the lyrics, and a discussion of the song/poem, with the derivation of the
> term "waltzing Matilda">
I have heard these alternative lyrics sung to another tune, in fact I think I
have it at home on a Bushwackers record. I would hum it for you, but I'm a
lousy hummer :-)
Ian Gentle irg...@csc.anu.edu.au
ige...@rsc.anu.edu.au
imj...@csc.anu.edu.au
found a set of lyrics that I believe are closer to Paterson's original
set. At the risk of overblowing your senses with Australiania, here are
the lyrics, and a discussion of the song/poem, with the derivation of the
Waltzing Matilda
CARRYING A SWAG
A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson
Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabongs,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree;
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag,
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. '
Up came the jumbuck to drink at the waterhole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-back,
'You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. '
Up came the squatter a-riding his thoroughbred;
Up came policemen - one, two, and three.
'Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with we.'
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag,
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. '
Up sprang the swagman and jumped in the waterhole,
Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree;
And his voice can be heard as it sings in the billabongs,
'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who 'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. '
The following discussion is taken from "Frontier Country -
Australia's Outback Heritage", Volume 1, pages 338 and 339,
Weldon Russel Pty. Ltd, 1989
"WALTZING MATILDA - THE SWAGMAN'S SONG
In essence, if not in reality, 'Waltzing Matilda' is
Australia's national song. Sung by troops in the Boer War,
and First and Second World Wars, at the 1956 Melbourne
Olympic Games, and recorded by American singer Harry
Belafonte, it is an unmistakable symbol of Australia, a
memorable ballad that conjures up visions of the sunburnt
country - even to those who have never seen it.
Yet what do those words, written by Andrew Barton (Banjo)
Paterson, one of Australia's best loved poets, really
mean, and why has this particular song become so
entrenched in the Australian consciousness?
Many words in 'Waltzing Matilda', although unlikely to be
common in the city-dweller's vocabulary, are familiar to
people of the bush and outback. The story tells of a
swagman - an itinerant bush worker, possibly a shearer - who
camps beside a billabong (an Aboriginal word for still or
dead water), and sits brewing his tea underneath a
coolabah tree, a variety of eucalypt found growing near
water. A lone sheep or jumbuck - again, an Aboriginal word -
visits the waterhole; the shearer steals the sheep, but is
caught in the act of hiding it in his tuckerbag (a sack
containing a swagman's meagre provisions) by the local
property owner, who is accompanied by three troopers. The
story ends with the swagman drowning himself in the
waterhole. The origins of 'Waltzing Matilda' are a little
more obscure, but it seems that the term was brought to
Australia by Austrian and German migrants arriving in the
1850s among the flood of gold prospectors. The term
'Matilda', which originally referred to the women who
accompanied the itinerant workers of Europe's Middle Ages,
later became widely used for the packs and bedrolls of
these journeymen: 'waltzing' derives from the expression
'auf der Walze', which means 'going on the tramp'. This
description of the peripatetic way of life of the European
itinerants is equally appropriate in an Australian
context. The expression stuck and became part of the
Australian language.
There is another question: is 'Waltzing Matilda' merely a
pleasant song of little significance, or has it become
Australia's alternative national anthem for deeper,
perhaps more political, reasons? The song's background is
intriguing.
Banjo Paterson, a lawyer and the son of a Scottish
pastoralist, spent much time in the bush, collecting old
ballads and songs, as well as writing his own memorable
poetry. During 1894, Paterson journeyed through western
Queensland; he returned the following year as the guest
of the Macpherson family, the owners of Dagworth, a
property in the Winton region. This was a time of great
dissension among shearers, stockmen and drovers; the
heyday of strikes against the pastoralists' use of non-
union labour; and an era of social unrest that
culminated in the beginnings of the Australian Labor
Party. The Macpherson family had themselves experienced
the desperation of the time. In 1894 rebel shearers had
set fire to their woolshed, destroying both sheep and
bales of wool. It is certain that these incidents were
still under discussion during Paterson's visit in
January 1895, and equally certain that he was intrigued
by them. Other events during his visit that contributed
to the writing of 'Waltzing Matilda' were a visit to the
Combo billabong, a favourite picnic spot, and Christina
Macpherson's fondness for playing a certain tune that
had its origins in an old Scottish ballad. Perhaps
Paterson's social conscience was stirred by the ideals
of the striking shearers and their resultant poverty,
but, whatever the reason, the words were written to the
old Scottish air, and by the end of 1895 the song had
been performed in public in Winton. With variations in
the wording, 'Waltzing Matilda' was quickly spread
throughout Queensland by the very men it honoured; Q
itinerant workers. Was its unprecedented popularity due
to the fact that these swagmen saw their colleague in
the song as a martyr - a victim of officialdom and the
repressive squattocracy?
ANNE MATTHEWS"
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Ian Jamie Research School of Chemistry
imj...@csc.anu.edu.au Australian National University
ja...@rsc.anu.edu.au Canberra, ACT, Australia
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