Union Songs

Waltzing Matilda

Oh there once was a swagman camped in a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

Chorus
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

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water hole
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker bag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

Down came the squatter a riding on his thoroughbred
Down came the troopers one two three
Whose is that jumbuck you've got in the tucker bag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

But the swagman he up and he jumped into the water hole
Drowning himself by the coolibah tree
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the billabong
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

Notes

Australia's real national anthem.
This tune often called 'The Queensland Version' was collected by John Manifold from John O'Neill of Buderim. Manifold notes how much better this tune fits the words that Banjo Paterson wrote.

Stewart and Keesing in Old Bush Songs note "The swagman is said to have drowned himself in the Combo waterhole in a billabong of the Diamantina River on the boundary of a station owned by the Macpherson family".

The text first appeared in Saltbush Bill J.P. printed in 1917.

Frank Hardy regarded the song as a reflection of the revolutionary period (1891) of the great Shearers Strike, when armed and mounted shearers faced the weight of military and judicial crackdown. Waltzing Matilda was written by Paterson shortly after the strike.



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union songs..........a selection by mark gregory