Christina Macpherson

Writing of the song

The Australian poet Banjo Paterson wrote the words to "Waltzing Matilda" in January 1895 while staying at Dagworth Station, a sheep and cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland owned by the Macpherson family. The words were written to a tune played on a zither or autoharp by 31‑year‑old Christina Macpherson, one of the family members at the station.

Macpherson had heard the tune "The Craigielee March" played by a military band while attending the Warrnambool steeplechase horse racing in Victoria in April 1894, and played it back by ear at Dagworth. Paterson decided that the music would be a good piece to set lyrics to, and produced the original version during the rest of his stay at the station and in Winton.

The march was based on the Scottish Celtic folk tune "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea", written by Robert Tannahill and first published in 1806, with James Barr composing the music in 1818. In the early 1890s it was arranged as "The Craigielee" march music for brass band by Australian composer Thomas Bulch. This tune, in turn, was possibly based on the old melody of "Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself", composed by John Field (1782–1837) sometime before 1812.

It has been widely accepted that "Waltzing Matilda" is probably based on the following story:

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 September 1894, some shearers at Dagworth Station were again on strike. The situation turned violent with the striking shearers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at Dagworth, killing dozens of sheep. The owner of Dagworth Station and three policemen gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister – also known as "French(y)". Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the Combo Waterhole. Bob Macpherson (the brother of Christina) and Paterson are said to have taken rides together at Dagworth. Here they would probably have passed the Combo Waterhole, where Macpherson is purported to have told this story to Paterson. Although not remaining in close contact, Paterson and Christina Macpherson both maintained this version of events until their deaths. Amongst Macpherson's belongings, found after her death in 1936, was an unopened letter to a music researcher that read "... one day I played (from ear) a tune, which I had heard played by a band at the Races in Warrnambool ... he [Paterson] then said he thought he could write some words to it. He then and there wrote the first verse. We tried it and thought it went well, so he then wrote the other verses." Similarly, in the early 1930s on ABC radio Paterson said "The shearers staged a strike and Macpherson's woolshed at Dagworth was burnt down and a man was picked up dead ... Miss Macpherson used to play a little Scottish tune on a zither and I put words to it and called it Waltzing Matilda."

The song itself was first performed on 6 April 1895 by Sir Herbert Ramsay at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton, Queensland. The occasion was a banquet for the Premier of Queensland.

In February 2010 ABC News reported an investigation by barrister Trevor Monti that the death of Hoffmeister was more akin to a gangland assassination than to suicide. The same report asserts "Writer Matthew Richardson says the song was most likely written as a carefully worded political allegory to record and comment on the events of the shearers' strike."

Alternative theories

A number of alternative theories for the origins or meaning of Waltzing Matilda have been proposed since the time it was written; however, most experts now essentially agree on the details outlined above. Some oral stories collected during the twentieth century claimed that Paterson had merely modified a preexisting bush song, but there is no evidence for this. In 1905 Paterson himself published a book of bush ballads he had collected from around Australia entitled Old Bush Songs, with nothing resembling Waltzing Matilda in it. Nor do any other publications or recordings of bush ballads include anything to suggest it predated Paterson. Meanwhile, handwritten manuscripts from the time the song originated indicate the song's origins with Paterson and Christina Macpherson, as do their own recollections and other pieces of evidence.

There has been speculation about the relationship "Waltzing Matilda" bears to an English song, "The Bold Fusilier" (also known as "Marching through Rochester", referring to Rochester in Kent and the Duke of Marlborough), a song sung to the same tune and dated by some back to the 18th century but first printed in 1900. There is, however, no documentary proof that "The Bold Fusilier" existed before 1900, and evidence suggests that this song was in fact written as a parody of "Waltzing Matilda" by English soldiers during the Boer War where Australian soldiers are known to have sung Waltzing Matilda as a theme. The first verse of "The Bold Fusilier" is:

In 2008 amateur Australian historian Peter Forrest claimed that the widespread belief that Paterson had penned the ballad as a socialist anthem, inspired by the Great Shearers' Strike, was false and a "misappropriation" by political groups. Forrest asserted that Paterson had in fact written the self-described "ditty" as part of his flirtation with Macpherson, despite his engagement to someone else. This theory was not shared by other historians like Ross Fitzgerald, emeritus professor in history and politics at Griffith University, who argued that the defeat of the strike in the area that Paterson was visiting only several months before the song's creation would have been in his mind, most likely consciously but at least "unconsciously", and thus was likely to have been an inspiration for the song. Fitzgerald stated, "the two things aren't mutually exclusive"—a view shared by others who, while not denying the significance of Paterson's relationship with Macpherson, nonetheless recognise the underlying story of the shearers' strike and Hoffmeister's death in the lyrics of the song.

Ownership

In 1903 Marie Cowan was hired to alter the song lyrics for use as an advertising jingle for Billy Tea, making it nationally famous. A third variation on the song, with a slightly different chorus, was published in 1907. Paterson sold the rights to Waltzing Matilda and "some other pieces" to Angus & Robertson for five Australian pounds.

Although no copyright applied to the song in Australia and many other countries, the Australian Olympic organisers had to pay royalties to an American publisher, Carl Fischer Music, following the song being played at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta. According to some reports, the song was copyrighted by Carl Fischer Music in 1941 as an original composition. However, the Sydney Morning Herald said that Carl Fischer Music had collected the royalties on behalf of Messrs Allan & Co, an Australian publisher that claimed to have bought the original copyright, though Allan's claim "remains unclear". Arrangements such as those claimed by Richard D. Magoffin remain in copyright in America.

Typical lyrics

There are no "official" lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda" and slight variations can be found in different sources. This version incorporates the famous "You'll never catch me alive said he" variation introduced by the Billy Tea company. Paterson's original lyrics referred to "drowning himself 'neath the Coolibah Tree". These are the lyrics written in 1903 by Marie Cowan to advertise Billy Tea.

Glossary

The lyrics contain many distinctively Australian English words, some now rarely used outside the song. These include:

waltzing 

derived from the German term auf der Walz, which means to travel while working as a craftsman and learn new techniques from other masters.

Matilda

a romantic term for a swagman's bundle. See below, "Waltzing Matilda".

Waltzing Matilda

from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance and so danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman. The National Library of Australia states:

swagman

a man who travelled the country looking for work. The swagman's "swag" was a bed roll that bundled his belongings.

billabong

an oxbow lake (a cut-off river bend) found alongside a meandering river

coolibah tree

a kind of eucalyptus tree which grows near billabongs

jumbuck

a sheep

billy

a can for boiling water in, usually 1–1.5 litres (2–3 pints)

tucker bag

a bag for carrying food

troopers

policemen

squatter

Australian squatters started as early farmers who raised livestock on land which they did not legally have the legal title to use; in many cases they later gained legal use of the land even though they did not have full possession, and became wealthy thanks to these large land holdings. The squatter's claim to the land may be as uncertain as the swagman's claim to the jumbuck.

Variations

The lyrics of "Waltzing Matilda" have been changed since it was written.

In a facsimile of the first part of the original manuscript, included in Singer of the Bush, a collection of Paterson's works published by Lansdowne Press in 1983, the first two verses appear as follows:

Some corrections in the manuscript are evident; the verses originally read (differences in italics):

It has been suggested that these changes were from an even earlier version, and that Paterson was talked out of using this text, but the manuscript does not bear this out. In particular, the first line of the chorus was corrected before it had been finished, so the original version is incomplete.

The first published version, in 1903, differs slightly from this text:

By contrast with the original, and also with subsequent versions, the chorus of all the verses was the same in this version. This is also apparently the only version that uses "billabongs" instead of "billabong".

Current variations of the third line of the first verse are "And he sang as he sat and waited by the billabong" or "And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled". Another variation is that the third line of each chorus is kept unchanged from the first chorus, or is changed to the third line of the preceding verse.

There is also the very popular so-called Queensland version that has a different chorus, one very similar to that used by Paterson:

Status

In May 1988 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Chief Executive, John Sturman, presented five platinum awards, "which recognised writers who had created enduring works which have become a major part of the Australian culture", at the annual APRA Awards ceremony as part of their celebrations for the Australian Bicentenary. One of the platinum awards was for Paterson and Cowan's version of "Waltzing Matilda".

Official use

The song has never been the officially recognised national anthem in Australia. Unofficially, however, it is often used in similar circumstances. The song was one of four included in a national plebiscite to choose Australia's national song held on 21 May 1977 by the Fraser Government to determine which song was preferred as Australia's national anthem. "Waltzing Matilda" received 28% of the vote compared with 43% for Advance Australia Fair, 19% for God Save the Queen and 10% for Song of Australia.

Australian passports issued from 2003 have had the lyrics of Waltzing Matilda hidden microscopically in the background pattern of most of the pages for visas and arrival/departure stamps.

Sports

Waltzing Matilda was used at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 and, as a response to the New Zealand All Blacks haka, it has gained popularity as a sporting anthem for the Australia national rugby union team. It is also performed, along with Advance Australia Fair, at the annual AFL Grand Final.

Matilda the Kangaroo was the mascot at the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane, Queensland. Matilda was a cartoon kangaroo, who appeared as a 13-metre (43 ft) high mechanical kangaroo at the opening ceremony, accompanied by Rolf Harris singing Waltzing Matilda.

The Australian women's national soccer team is nicknamed the Matildas after this song.

Military units

It is used as the quick march of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and as the official song of the US 1st Marine Division, commemorating the time the unit spent in Australia during the Second World War. Partly also used in the British Royal Tank Regiment's slow march of "Royal Tank Regiment", because an early British tank model was called "Matilda".

Covers and derivative works

According to the National Film and Sound Archive, Waltzing Matilda has been recorded over 600 times.

Waltzing Matilda has been recorded by many Australian musicians and singers, including John Williamson, Peter Dawson, John Schumann, the Seekers, Thomas Edmonds, Rolf Harris, the Wiggles.

Bands and artists from other nations, including Helmut Lotti, Wilf Carter (Montana Slim), the Irish Rovers, Burl Ives, the Swingle Singers and the Red Army Choir have also recorded the song. Jimmie Rodgers had a US#41 pop hit with the song in 1959.

In 1983 the late country-and-western singer Slim Dusty's rendition became the first song to be broadcast to Earth by astronauts.

Film

Versions of the song have been featured in a number of mainly Australian movies and television programs.

The song is featured in the American movies The Desert Rats (1953) and On the Beach (1959), the latter directed by Stanley Kramer and based on the novel by Nevil Shute.

Video games

"Waltzing Matilda" is the theme song for Australia in the video game Civilization VI.

Sport

Waltzing Matilda is a fixture at many Australian sporting events. Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker recorded a version of "Waltzing Matilda" to promote the 2012 Summer Olympics in Australia. It was released as a single on 3 August 2012.

Stage

On the occasion of Queensland's 150-year celebrations in 2009, Opera Queensland produced the revue Waltzing Our Matilda, staged at the Conservatorium Theatre and subsequently touring twelve regional centres in Queensland. The show was created by Jason and Leisa Barry-Smith and Narelle French. The story line used the fictional process of Banjo Paterson writing the poem when he visited Queensland in 1895 to present episodes of four famous Australians: bass-baritone Peter Dawson (1882–1961), soprano Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931), Bundaberg-born tenor Donald Smith (1922–1998), and soprano Gladys Moncrieff, also from Bundaberg. The performers were Jason Barry-Smith as Banjo Paterson, Guy Booth as Dawson, David Kidd as Smith, Emily Burke as Melba, Zoe Traylor as Moncrieff, and Donna Balson (piano, voice).

Derivative musical works

During the 1950s, a parody of the original entitled "Once a Learned Doctor" gained some currency in university circles. It featured lyrics rewritten with reference to the split in the Australian Labor Party in the period 1954 to 1957.

In 1961, Australian songwriter Jack O'Hagan provided new lyrics to the traditional tune to be called "God Bless Australia" (see that article for its lyrics) that he hoped would become the Australian national anthem.

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" was written by Scottish-Australian songwriter Eric Bogle in 1971. The song concerns the Australian experience at the Battle of Gallipoli and Anzac Day. It incorporates the melody and a few lines of "Waltzing Matilda"'s lyrics at its conclusion.

Rambling Syd Rumpo in the late 1960s BBC radio program Round the Horne did a parody of "Waltzing Matilda" beginning "Once long ago in the shade of a goolie bush..."

The Family Car Songbook (1983) presents a "translation" of the song, using the same musical score, into an "American" version of singing the same ballad.

Canadian folk musician Stompin' Tom Connors performed a cover of "Waltzing Matilda" on his 1999 album titled Move Along with Stompin' Tom.

Tom Waits' 1976 song "Tom Traubert's Blues" incorporates elements of "Waltzing Matilda".

The 1980 television series Secret Valley used the melody as its theme music, with new lyrics written by the series producer and co-creator Roger Mirams (under the name David Phillips).