WALTZING MATILDA

It's not exactly in the same league as " The Star-Spangled Banner " or " La Marseillaise", but it's the song that Australians get teary-eyed over when they hear it played a long way from home. The official anthem, by the way, is " Advance Australia Fair"; on Royal occasions in Australia, " God Save our Queen " is played.

Why do Australians find Waltzing Matilda so unutterably poignant? I'm not sure, but I think the answer lies deep in the Australian psyche. Waltzing Matilda is very much a nationalist song.

The tramp steals a sheep; he then chooses to die at his own hand for this trifling crime - as though the sheep's life were more valuable than his own.  Remember that Australia was colonised by convicts sentenced to "transportation" from England, often for trivial property offences; Australians are still suspicious of authority, and cynical about the pomposity and hypocrisy of the judicial and police systems.

Waltzing Matilda - to me, at least - brings thoughts of the slaughter of Australian troops at Gallipoli (Turkey) in 1915. Massive incompetence on the part of British politicians (chiefly Winston Churchill) and generals led to a death toll that hit every town and every city in what was then still a tiny nation.

The cynicism about war and the concept of "Empire" is elegantly expressed in Eric Bogle's " And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda ". You can hear a few bars of this in RealAudio this by clicking here.

There's an entire web site devoted to Waltzing Matilda at www.waltzingmatilda.com, and also some urban legend debunking at www.urbanlegends.com/songs/waltzing_matilda.html.

Waltzing Matilda is sometimes performed as a brisk march; but I'd much rather hear it played in sad, almost wistful measures.

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong:
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee.
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."

Up rode a squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred;
Down came the troopers, one, two, three:
"Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong;
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he;
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"