Waltzing Matilda

“Waltzing Matilda” is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country’s “unofficial national anthem”. The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one’s belongings in a “matilda” (swag) slung over one’s back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or “swagman”, making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck’s owner, a squatter (grazier), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares “You’ll never catch me alive!” and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The original lyrics were written in 1895 by the Australian poet Banjo Paterson, to a tune played by Christina Macpherson. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that it has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, in the Queensland outback, where Paterson wrote the lyrics. In 2012, to remind Australians of the song’s significance, Winton organised the inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day to be held on 6 April, wrongly thought at the time to be the versary of its first performance. The song was first recorded in 1926 as performed by John Collinson and Russell Callow. In 2008, this recording of “Waltzing Matilda” was added to the Sounds of Australia registry in the National Film and Sound Archive, which says that there are more recordings of “Waltzing Matilda” than any other Australian song. Combo Waterhole, thought to be the location of the story that inspired “Waltzing Matilda” In 1895, Andrew Barton Paterson was living in Sydney, NSW. By day, he was a solicitor. By night he wrote his much-loved poetry and moonlighted as a freelance journalist under the pen name of “The Banjo”. Banjo was the name of his favourite horse on his father’s farm.[8]During his annual holiday, Paterson made the 5-day journey to Winton, in central Queensland, to visit Sarah Riley, his fiancée of 7 years, and to see first-hand how people lived on the enormous, remote sheep stations in Central Queensland. On arrival, he attended a gathering where he heard Christina Macpherson, Sarah’s best friend from school days, play a tune to entertain those present. Paterson offered to write some lyrics to suit the melody and, in Christina’s own words, “He then and there wrote the first verse.” The rest of the song was written over a period of some three or four weeks in August 1895[9] at a number of locations. Credible accounts exist of the later verses being written at Dagworth Station, a sheep station 130 km north west of Winton in Central West Queensland, owned by the Macpherson family. Paterson and others have left accounts of the song being written at Dick’s Creek, en route to Winton from Dagworth Station. The song was then sung, with piano accompaniment, in a house in Winton (owned by members of the Riley family). There is photographic evidence of the song, at an advanced stage, being sung at Oondooroo Station, again with piano accompaniment.[10] Paterson’s words were written to suit a tune played by 31‑year‑old Christina Macpherson (1864–1936),[11][12] one of the family members. When no piano was available, the instrument that Christina played was a small, very early model of an instrument called a volkszither or akkordzither in Germany. In America, where it became very popular, it was called an autoharp.[13][14] At Dagworth and Dick’s Creek, Christina would have played the autoharp. On 24 April 1894, Christina had attended the annual Warrnambool steeplechase meeting in south western Victoria. The music at the meeting was provided by the Warrnambool Garrison Artillery Band. The first item played by the band was the quick march, ‘Craigielee’, arranged by English born Australian, Thomas Bulch, in 1893. ‘Craigielee’ was typical contest brass band arrangement with three strains. The first strain was “Bonnie Wood of Craigielee” composed by Glasgow musician, James Barr published in 1818 for Robert Tannahill’s 1806 poem, “Thou Bonnie Wood o Craigielee”. Christina had a good memory for songs and, when she had the opportunity, tried to play the first strain by ear on piano. Christina’s memory was not perfect. The first strain of “Craigielee” had the musical form AABC.[17] Christina remembered the AAB section but not the C section. To complete her tune, she repeated the second A section. Christina’s tune had the musical form, AABA. This is the musical form of “Waltzing Matilda” sung today. When Christina arrived at Dagworth in June 1895 she found an autoharp, with three or four chord bars, which belonged to the bookkeeper, John Tait Wilson.[18] As there was no piano at Dagworth, Christina learned to play this autoharp. Within 7 weeks she was able to play the tune that she heard at Warrnambool, well enough to catch the attention of Banjo Paterson. During the rest of her stay at Dagworth she mastered it. About seven weeks after arriving at Dagworth, Christina and her brothers went into Winton for a week or so. This happened to be the time that Banjo Paterson arrived to visit Sarah Riley. In Christina’s own words, “One day I played (from ear) a tune which I had heard played by a band at the races in Warrnambool. Mr Paterson asked me what it was – I could not tell him. He said he thought he could write some lines to it. He then and there wrote the first verse.” The Macphersons invited Paterson and Sarah Riley to return to Dagworth with them. During his stay, Paterson would have seen the places, heard the stories and encountered the people who inspired the lyrics of the original “Waltzing Matilda”. Fortified temporary shearing shed at Dagworth Station following the 1894 arson of the main shed. The three troopers at left are thought to be those referred to in “Waltzing Matilda”, while the squatter was Bob Macpherson, fourth from right. Some of the stories and events that may have inspired the lyrics of “Waltzing Matilda” are below. In Queensland, in 1891, the Great Shearers’ Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, called in the military.[23] In July and August 1894, as the shearing season approached, the strike broke out again in protest at a wage and contract agreement proposed by the ‘squatters’. During July and August, seven shearing sheds in central Queensland were burned by striking union shearers before shearing could begin with ‘scab’ labour.[24] Early on the morning of September 2, a group of striking union shearers, firing rifles and pistols, set fire to the shearing shed at Dagworth. The fire killed over a hundred sheep. The shed was defended by Constable Michael Daly, Bob Macpherson and his brothers and employees. In the early afternoon of the same day, Senior Constable Austin Cafferty, in Kynuna, was informed that a man had shot himself at a striking shearers’ camp in a billabong 4 miles from Kynuna and about 15 miles from Dagworth. When he arrived at the camp, S/C Cafferty found the body of Samuel Hoffmeister, also known as “Frenchy”, with a bullet wound through the mouth, in an apparent suicide. Hoffmeister was a known leader of the striking unionists and suspected of being involved in the arson attack at Dagworth on the night before. Later S/C Cafferty was joined by Constable Michael Daley who had travelled from Dagworth.Three days later an inquest into his death was conducted with very limited police resources. The coroner, police magistrate, Ernest Eglington, gave the controversial but convenient verdict of suicide. Banjo Paterson was a first-class horseman and loved riding. It is likely that he would have seized any opportunity to go riding at Dagworth. Bob Macpherson (the brother of Christina) and Paterson went riding together and, in Christina’s words, “they came to a waterhole (or billabong) & found the skin of a sheep which had been recently killed—all that had been left by a swagman”. This incident may have inspired the second verse.[29] Tom Ryan worked at Dagworth in 1895 and recorded an incident in which Paterson accompanied Dagworth horse breaker, Jack Lawton, when he went to the Combo to bring in a mob of horses. They brought them part of the way in and then put them against a fence running into a waterhole. Lawton then took the saddle from his horse and gave it a swim. He then stripped off and dived from a gum tree into the waterhole. Paterson followed suit. Jack then noticed that the mob of horses were walking away and would probably go back to their starting point. He jumped on his own horse without waiting to don any clothes and galloped after the mob. He was surprised, on looking around, to find his companion had again followed his example. On reaching the station that t, Patterson told him it was the best day’s outing he had ever had.There is very little credible evidence of how Banjo spent his time while staying at Dagworth, but it is entirely feasible that, at some time, he visited the Combo Waterhole. He may even have visited the site of the shearers’ camp where Frenchy offmeister’s body was found.