Waltzing Matilda Explained: What do the lyrics mean?

"Waltzing Matilda Explained" is an exploration of the history behind the writing of Australia's unofficial national anthem from its origins in a remote area in Queensland.

Music at the end of the video (The tune from Waltzing Matilda) is from Wikimedia created by user CambridgeBayWeather licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Waltzing_Matilda.ogg

Listen to the rendition of the song from Slim Dusty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqtttbbYfSM

TRANSCRIPT

Jumbuck, Billy-boil, Swagman, Billabong

If these words ring a bell to you, it’s because you might have heard it from a song called “Waltzing Matilda”. It’s the most recorded Australian song in history and it’s so popular that it even has its own museum and commemorative day. Also, its lyrics were once microprinted on Australian passports. And even though it lost to Advance Australia Fair in a 1977 plebiscite to be Australia’s national anthem, many believe that it does a better job of capturing Australian ideals.

So how can a song with seemingly obscure lyrics became so ingrained in the national psyche? What exactly do the lyrics mean? Most importantly, how does the song relate to the everyday Australian?

To understand all these, we have to go back to the year 1891 in the town of Winton in the Queensland Outback. During this time, wool was one of Australia’s largest industries. This gave rise to a demand in sheep shearers -- those responsible for removing wool from domestic sheep. As the wool industry grew, working conditions also started to decline and this gave rise to what is now known as the Great Shearer’s Strike. Union workers were trying to fight for fair wages and workers’ rights, among other things.

The situation cooled down but intensified again three years later and one day in 1894, some shearers set the woolshed at a cattle station on fire, killing dozens of sheep. The station owner and three policemen chased a man named Samuel Hoffmeister but instead of yielding to be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself in a waterhole in the Diamantina River.

Months after the incident, Banjo Paterson, a solicitor, journalist, and bush poet, traveled around the area and, along the way, spent time with members of the family who own Dagworth Station. It was during this time that he wrote the lyrics to Waltzing Matilda and there is a good chance that it was inspired or influenced by those recent events.

The song narrates the story of a “swagman”, or travelling worker who carries a “swag” - a bag of sorts containing his clothes, cooking implements, and other necessities, packaged in a bedroll. He chanced upon a “jumbuck” or a sheep, the origins of this word likely being an Aboriginal pidgin for “jump up” which something that most sheep do. He shoves the sheep inside his “tuckerbag”, probably for dinner. Tucker is an old British word for “food”. He did all this while camped in a “billabong”, an isolated watering hole that is otherwise usually dry. The “squatter” and “troopers” -- another term for mounted police officers -- eventually pursued the man. “Squatters” were original settlers of land that wasn’t allocated by the government yet during this point in Australia’s history. These squatters eventually became wealthy landowners. In this story, the squatter seems to be the lawful owner of the jumbuck. Continuing the narrative, the swagman escaped, declaring: “You’ll never catch me alive!”, and proceeded to drown himself in the billabong, where his ghost continues to haunt the site.

At a high-level, it’s a tale of an outlaw pursued by authorities, and instead of facing prosecution, escapes and commits suicide instead. This story can be a perplexing one to grasp, however, to many Australians, the jolly swagman, travelling from place to place, with minimal possessions and finding work along the way, is an example of a carefree life, not dragged down by material possessions. It also speaks of the Australian’s inclination to side with those standing up to authority or its love for the underdog -- a sentiment that resonates from stories of Ned Kelly, the Gallipoli campaign, or the Eureka rebellion. It’s also a tale of freedom, with the swagman choosing to die than face the possibility of being put in prison, as for him, living a life without freedom is no life at all.

So the next time you happen to be wandering about the Australian bush, just remember that this is the jolly swagman’s turf. As per the song, he continues to haunt it, while chanting the last line of each verse: You’ll come a waltzing matilda with me -- It’s an invitation to live a carefree life, a life free from many of our modern mundane responsibilities, enjoying simple pleasures such as having a cup of billy tea, and defying authority when it threatens this freedom.

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