Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ONCE A JOLLY SWAGMAN
Written in 1895 by AB 'Banjo' Paterson (1864-1941),
Waltzing Matilda
is widely regarded as Australia's unoffi-
cial national anthem. While not many can sing the entire official anthem,
Advance Australia Fair,
without a lyric
sheet, just about every Aussie knows the words to the strange ditty about a jolly swagman who jumped into a bil-
labong and drowned himself rather than be arrested for stealing a jumbuck (sheep). But what does it mean?
For the song's origins to be understood, it has to be seen in the political context of its time. The 1890s was a
period of political change in Queensland. Along with nationalistic calls for Federation, economic crisis, mass un-
employment and severe droughts dominated the decade. An ongoing battle between pastoralists and shearers led
to a series of strikes that divided the state and led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party to represent
workers' interests.
In 1895 Paterson visited his fiancée in Winton, and together they travelled to Dagworth Station south of
Kynuna, where they met Christina Macpherson. During their stay they went on a picnic to the Combo Waterhole,
a series of billabongs on the Diamantina River, where Paterson heard stories about the violent 1894 shearers'
strike on Dagworth Station. During the strike rebel shearers burnt seven woolsheds to the ground, leading the po-
lice to declare martial law and place a reward of £1000 on the head of their leader, Samuel Hoffmeister. Rather
than be captured, Hoffmeister killed himself near the Combo Waterhole.
Paterson later wrote the words to
Waltzing Matilda
to accompany a tune played by Christina Macpherson on a
zither. While there is no direct proof he was writing allegorically about Hoffmeister and the shearers' strikes, a
number of prominent historians have supported the theory and claimed the song was a political statement. Others
maintain it is just an innocent but catchy tune about a hungry vagrant, but the song's undeniable anti-authoritari-
anism and the fact that it was adopted as an anthem by the rebel shearers weigh heavily in favour of the histori-
ans' argument.
