Banjo paterson waltzing matilda

Australian song

For other uses, see Waltzing Matilda (disambiguation).

"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".^[1]

The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back.^[2] The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", boiling a billy 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 composed in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, to a tune played by Christina MacPherson based on her memory of