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, by walking with one's belongings in a "matilda" slung over one's back, a slang expression that may have originally been repurposed from a work of light verse by Charles Godfrey Leland. The song narrates the story of a "swagman" boiling a billy at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter, and three troopers pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong, after which his ghost haunts the site.
The original lyrics were composed in 1895 by the Australian poet Banjo Paterson, to a tune played by Christina MacPherson based on her memory of Thomas Bulch's march Craigielee, which was in turn based on James Barr's setting for Robert Tannahill's poem "Thou Bonnie Wood o Craigielee".
The first published setting of "Waltzing Matilda" was Harry Nathan's on 20 December 1902. Nathan wrote a new variation of Christina MacPherson's melody and changed some of the words. The Sydney tea merchant James Inglis wanted to use "Waltzing Matilda" as an advertising jingle for Billy Tea. In early 1903, Inglis purchased the rights to 'Waltzing Matilda' and asked Marie Cowan, the wife of one of his managers, to try her hand at turning it into an advertising jingle. Cowan made some more changes to the words and some very minor changes to Nathan's melody and gave the song a simple, brisk, harmonious accompaniment which made it very catchy. Her song, published in 1903, grew in popularity, and Cowan's arrangement remains the best-known version of "Waltzing Matilda".
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 anniversary 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.
History
Writing of the song
In 1895, Andrew Barton Paterson was living in Sydney, making his living as a solicitor. During this time, Paterson also wrote poetry and worked as a freelance journalist, both of which were published under the pen name of "The Banjo". Banjo was the name of his favourite horse on his father's farm. Paterson's poetry became unexpectedly popular, eventually resulting in his identity being publicly revealed. At some point in 1895, Paterson took a holiday from his day job, probably in early August. He made a journey of at least 5 days to visit Sarah Riley, his fiancée of 7 years, in Winton, central-western Queensland and to see how people lived on the enormous, remote sheep stations in the district.On arriving in Winton, Banjo attended a gathering where Christina Macpherson, Sarah's friend from school days in St Kilda, Melbourne, played some music to entertain those present. One tune caught Banjo's attention. In Christina's own words, "Mr Paterson asked me what it was – I could not tell him & he then said that that he thought that he could write some lines to it. He then and there wrote the first verse." The rest of the song was written and rehearsed over a period of some three or four weeks in August and early September at a number of locations. Credible accounts exist of the later verses being written at Dagworth Station, a sheep station 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 Dicks Creek, en route to Winton from Dagworth Station. The song was then sung, with piano accompaniment, in a house in Winton. There is photographic evidence of the song, at an advanced stage, being sung at Oondooroo Station, again with piano accompaniment. 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.
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", composed by English-born Australian Thomas Bulch, in or before 1891, using the pseudonym Godfrey Parker. "Craigielee" was a typical march with three strains. The first strain in the main section was based on "Thou Bonny Wood of Craigie Lee", composed by Glasgow musician James Barr, published in 1818 for Robert Tannahill's poem "Thou Bonnie Wood o Craigielee" which was written prior to 1806. 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. Christina remembered the AAB section and put it into her tune as bars 1–12. For some reason she did not add the C section to her song as bars 13–16. To complete her tune, Christina 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. As there was no piano at Dagworth, Christina learned to play this autoharp. Within seven 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 she arrived at Dagworth, Christina and her brothers went into Winton for a week or so. This coincided with the time that Banjo Paterson arrived to meet Sarah Riley. Banjo and Sarah were immediately invited to join the group returning to Dagworth Station. This was an irresistible temptation for a man venturing into the outback, the 'never-never' for the first time. 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".
Possible inspirations
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. 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 non-union labour. Early on the morning of 2 September, 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 from Kynuna and about 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 Daly, who had travelled from Dagworth. Three days later, a Coronial inquest into Hoffmeister's death was held at Kynuna Station. Police Magistrate, Ernest Eglington, travelled from Winton to conduct it. Dr Welford accompanied him to carry out a post mortem. Evidence was given by shearers who were in the camp when Hoffmeister died. The coroner found that the cause of Hoffmeister's death was "suicide" – a single gunshot to the mouth. That finding has, in 2010, been questioned.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 and Paterson went riding together and, in Christina's words, "they came to a waterhole & 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. 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 night, Paterson told him it was the best day's outing he had ever had.
Banjo's stay at Dagworth Station was short. He would have spent at least 16 days travelling during his absence from Sydney. While claims are made that he attended Combo Waterhole, they are not confirmed by Banjo or others who were present at the time of any visit there. There is no evidence that Banjo made the round trip to the Four Mile Billabong where Hoffmeister's body was found. It is highly unlikely that he would have had time to do so during his short stay at Dagworth Station.