After Century, Australia Is Still ‘Waltzing Matilda’
I forget exactly how long ago it was that I first heard Australia’s national song, “Waltzing Matilda,” but it was in elementary school while growing up in middle America.
Like some things you never forget from your childhood, that whimsical, melodious tune filled with strange Aussie words like “swagman,” “billabong,” “jumbuck” and the mysterious waltzing Matilda, stuck in my mind over the years.
So on a recent visit to that great land down under, I ventured into the outback of Queensland in pursuit of the real story of “Waltzing Matilda,” which recently celebrated its centennial anniversary.
Once there was a swagman camped in a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?
I took a small commuter airline from Queensland’s coast on a 90-minute flight into the interior to the small remote outback town of Winton, the legendary birthplace of “Waltzing Matilda.”
Winton is not much, as towns go. Its quiet main street is lined with typical outback Aussie buildings, a couple of hotel-pubs and a few shops.
The town appears to have stepped from the 19th into the 20th century, then abruptly stopped. It’s about 1,000 miles from nowhere, in a dry, parched, almost treeless outback landscape of open plains country.
Winton is the heart of outback Queensland and its widespread community of sheep and cattle stations (ranches). This is a foreboding land of scorching summer heat that can reach 120 degrees in the shade (if you can find any). Yet heavy rains during the “Wet,” as it’s called, can create vast flash floods that isolate stations and people for days at a time.
This vast rolling prairie and near-desert country of bushman and swagman is to Australian outback legend and lore what the great American West is to tales of the cowboy.
The story of “Waltzing Matilda” began in early 1895 when a young lawyer from Sydney - “Banjo” Paterson - made the long trip up to Queensland near Winton to visit his fiancee, Sarah Riley, at Vindex Station.
During his lengthy stay, they rode over to Dagworth Station for a party with Bob and Christina Macpherson. While there they were marooned by the Wet, and Paterson whiled away time writing words to a melody Mrs. Macpherson had played on the autoharp.
The tune was thought to have been an old Scottish marching song called “Bonnie Wood of Craiglea.”
Paterson based the lyrics on the local stories he’d been hearing during his stay in the outback - stories about jolly swagmen (wanderers) “waltzing their Matildas” (carrying their belongings rolled up in a blanket); a stolen jumbuck (sheep); and a wanted man who had drowned himself in a billabong (waterhole) rather than be captured by police.
The song was first performed in public at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton on April 6, 1895, and became an instant success, quickly sweeping Australia to become the new nation’s favorite song.
Over the years, “Waltzing Matilda” became one of Australia’s most recognized international symbols. During World Wars I and II, the song saw scores of Aussie soldiers off to battle in distant lands and endeared its words to a proud nation. “Waltzing Matilda” came to epitomize the rough-and-tumble landscape of the Australian outback and the rugged individuals who inhabit it.
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee;
And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker-bag,
Oh! You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Visitors planning to drive through Australia’s outback can follow the Matilda Highway, a combination of highways and byways linking the towns and stations of the region from Cunnamulla in the south, through the central Winton and Longreach area, to Mount Isa and the gulf country of northern Queensland.
But with the long distances between, tourists are cautioned that driving through the bleak unvarying outback landscape can be a time-consuming venture. As options, there are bus and rail tours available throughout the region.
Newcomers to the outback will enjoy a variety of typically Aussie experiences, including stays at working sheep and cattle stations. Many of the regions’s stations offer primitive accommodations and the chance to experience real station life.
Guests can take horseback rides, help muster sheep and cattle, watch a sheepshearing, explore the stark countryside and even enjoy an Aussie bushman’s campfire lunch complete with billy tea and damper bread.
Outback towns like Winton and Longreach in the heart of Queensland also offer more traditional visitor accommodations and attractions, including museums, the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, ancient aboriginal sites, historic homes and stations, and the original home of Qantas Airlines.
One thing not to be missed is a stop at one of the many delightful country pubs found in the small towns and settlements. Here visitors can find a simple country-style meal, a cold drink, a simple room for overnight lodging and a glimpse of the colorful outback life.
One thing about the outback that dominates everything else is its sheer size. Few who travel through it come to fully appreciate its vastness. It’s almost an alien land, too big, too harsh and too extreme to define adequately.
For some, this giant land seems almost uncivilized. And yet, despite its drawbacks, the rugged individualists of outback Australia like this lifestyle, and find their own ways to cope and survive, much like their song “Waltzing Matilda.”
If ever there were a song written to fit a people and a land, “Waltzing Matilda” certainly fits the real outback Australia.
Down came the squatter a-riding his thoroughbred,
Down came the policemen - one, two and three.
Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in the tucker-bag?
Oh! You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Up jumped the swagman and dived in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the coolabah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the billabong,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?