Waltzing Matilda Oh, there once was a swagman camped in the billabong, Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Down came the jumbuck to drink at the water-hole, Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee, And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag, You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Up came the Squatter a-ridding his thoroughbred, Up came Policemen - one, two and three, Whose is that jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag, You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? The swagman he up and he jumped in the water-hole, Drowning himself by the coolibah tree, And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the billabong, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag, Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Commentary on what this song means More than you ever wanted to know, but pretty interesting; from an Aussie web site. Waltzing Matilda; what a lovely expression. Now have you ever wondered just what those words really mean? I believe there is little doubt that the origins of the phrase are from Germany, and the saying came across to Australia with the German settlers, in one form or another and truly found favour with the Swagman/Shearers of the outback. Waltzing, is derived from the German term auf der walz meaning to go on the walz or on the tramp. This expression referred to the custom where an apprentice in various trades or crafts, was required to serve an allotted period traveling around the country or outside Germany gaining experience and new techniques for their trade. During this period auf der walz, the apprentice gained employment with master craftsman in various towns, earning his living as he went and sleeping where he could. All this was part of the guild system for apprentice tradesmen, and was not abolished until about 1911. He was required to carry a special book [handwerksbook] in which he had to have entered by each master that employed him, particulars of the work he learnt, its duration, and his conduct. Upon the completion of his allotted time for being on the walz the apprentice could return to his village and practice as a tradesman. The word Matilda comes from Teutonic origin meaning Mighty Battle Maiden. Then through the years was the name given to the females that followed the soldiers in the thirty year European war. These Matildas that followed the soldiers would keep them warm at night. So the word was then used to describe the grey army coats that the soldiers wore or carried with them, thus Matilda was the name given to the swag or blanket that was carried, usually over the shoulder, to keep them warm at night. Hence; Waltzing Matilda, to go walkabout looking for a job with your tools of trade and the things that kept you warm at night. Whenever and wherever Australians gather together to celebrate; Waltzing Matilda is there. Matilda has marched Australians into battle and marched them home again, celebrated sporting victories, echoed around school room walls and walked Prime Ministers into office. Waltzing Matilda could not possibly have been written in any country other than Australia. When a referendum was held to select our National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair was chosen ahead of Waltzing Matilda. At that time very few Australians had any idea when or why Waltzing Matilda was written or, for that matter what it meant. Now one hundred years after Waltzing Matilda was written, we are learning of the events that surrounded and influenced the writing of our National song. Without the volatile and turbulent 1894 Shearers Strike, a mysterious love affair, and a series of coincidental events stretching from as far south as Warrnambool, nestled in lush green country-side of the Western Victorian coast, to Dagworth Station on the unforgiving and sometimes barren North-Western plains of Queensland, there would be no Waltzing Matilda. Our lovely little song has found its way from the remote Queensland plains to every corner of the earth, and the Swagman, or [jolly] Swagman has become a symbol of the Australian identity. These very same men forged the term mateship, and through their unity and trust bonded together to form unions in the 1890’s. To these men we owe a great debt, if it had not been for their unshakable resolve, Australia would have been burdened and inhibited by British class distinctions. The Strike Begins After the Great Shearers' Strike of 1891, the shearing seasons of 1892 and 1893 were comparatively quiet. Although there were no general strikes there were several "acts of incendiarism", setting fire to shearing sheds and wool stockpiles. The targets for these acts were key figures in the 1891 disputes and can be accounted for by ongoing resentment. The Pastoralists however were moved to maintain their profits in the face of falling overseas wool prices and a prolonged drought. The mechanism was to invoke a new unilateral agreement. The agreement held a most objectionable clause (Clause 8) which placed the sheds under the unequivocal control of the owner or shed boss. Any shearer refusing to shear wet sheep or carry out duties as directed would be in breach of the agreement and would thus be liable to criminal prosecution. The Pastoralists’ Union also proposed to cut the machine shearing rate by 12.5%. The 1894 strike began closer to the season beginning and thus providing the shearers with a tactical advantage. The strike was widespread -- Queensland, NSW, and parts of South Australia and Victoria As the strike reached boiling point in Western Queensland, down in NSW the trouble in the outback was attracting national attention as the violence that escalated throughout the Eastern States of Australia was nothing short of a civil insurrection, with civilians being enlisted as special constables to combat the striking unionists. By the end of August 1894, violence escalated to the extent that meetings were held in Sydney and a bill was tabled in Queensland Parliament to deal with the trouble in the west. In Eight Days in 1894, Andrew Barton Banjo Paterson would, like the rest of Australia, hear of three significant events, that inspired him, with the musical assistance of Christina Rutherford Macpherson, to immortalise the Swagman/Shearers of 1894 in the ballad of Waltzing Matilda. The Burning of the Paddle Steamer Rodney The Paddle Steamer P. S. Rodney was transporting non-union labour (scabs) to the shearing shed at Tolarno Station when it was boarded by a raiding party of union shearers from the nearby strike camp, after a fight with the crew, the blacklegs (scabs) were removed from the boat, the Rodney was then doused with kerosene and burnt to the water-line. It has been recorded that while the P.S. Rodney was burning, a young union shearer annexed a concertina from somewhere and played After the Ball is Over. Many of the men who worked on the river, including the river-boat captains were sympathetic to the struggles of the union shearers and would not assist the Pastoralists with transportation of non-union labour. The Captain of the Rodney, Captain Dickson, was active during the 1891 strike transporting non-union labour on his boat, so when he was doing it again in ‘94, the shearers took a particular dislike to him. The burning of the Rodney marked a day of extreme violence in Western N.S.W. and certainly warranted further investigation. To fully appreciate the events we need to understand the importance of riverboat transport to the economic and social life of inland Australia. There were few roads - most passable only by bullock dray, camel, bicycle, or shank’s pony (walking). Huge quantities of cargo and produce were plied along the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee Rivers by paddle steamer. Paddle steamers, with their broad beam and shallow draft, were eminently suited to the ever changing river. Throughout the 1894 shearers’ strike, paddle steamers were used to ferry troops (police) to areas of conflict where troops were required to protect shearing sheds attempting to shear with non-union labour. The non-unionists were also transported via the river systems as the owners were desperate to commence shearing sheep now heavily laden with wool. The burning of the Rodney was the only act of inland piracy recorded in Australia’s history. The events preceding and succeeding this episode, when linked with surrounding occurrences, indicated the escalating nature of the conflict and the utter determination of the union shearers to uphold their position. The unionists saw the transport of free labourers via the river boats as a direct threat to their survival. They knew of the progress of the Rodney and were prepared to risk the dangers and arrest to prevent it reaching its destination of Tolarno Station. The shearers who burnt the Rodney were never caught despite some dubious charges being made. The Grave of Billy McLean Erected by HIS FELLOW UNIONISTS AND ADMIRERS IN MEMORY OF THEIR COMRADE, WILLIAM JOHN McLEAN WHO WAS SHOT BY A NON-UNIONIST AT GRASSMERE STATION, N.S.W. DURING THE STRUGGLE OF 1894, AND WHO DIED 22nd MARCH, 1896, AGED 26 YEARS, A GOOD SON, A FAITHFUL MATE, AND A DEVOTED UNIONIST. UNION IS STRENGTH. Billy McLean was a young shearer and in the tradition of Western Victorian shearers would ride his bicycle north at the commencement of the season and work the sheds back down through New South Wales into Victoria. McLean lived at Illowa, and much of the wool from the western and southern districts of New South Wales was transported by bullock dray to Port Fairy on the Western Victorian coast which at one time in the 1800’s was second only to Sydney as the international port of Australia. Shearers would sometimes hitch a ride on a bullock dray or ride their bicycle along the bullock tracks up to the Murray/Darling river systems where they would be transported by river-boats to the shearing districts. Billy McLean was one of these men. As Billy McLean entered the Shearing Shed at Grassmere Station, he was shot, later charged with "unlawful assembly" and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Billy was released early as the hand of death was upon him due to a bullet drilled lung He struggled homeand died in his bed. Billy is Remembered Billy McLean’s part in the 1894 strike and the circumstances of the times can be gauged by the two outstanding monuments to him -- the gravestone monument at Tower Hill and William McLean House -- The Victorian Office Building of the Australian Workers Union. Where, oh where is young Billy McLean, Where, oh where is that gallant man, He's gone to organise the union, So working men they may yet be free... It could be claimed that the burning of the Paddle Steamer Rodney and the shooting of Billy McLean was the catalyst in bringing about the recognition for compromise and reconciliation. There was a distinct change of tone in the rhetoric of both the union and the government. However, seven days later, the Strike of 1894 was to claim another victim, as Richard Magoffin often quotes; the most famous Australian who ever died, Banjo Paterson’s legendary swagman, Samuel Frenchy Hoffmeister. The burning down of the Dagworth Woolshed In the early hours of a Sunday morning just seven days after the burning of the Rodney and the shooting of Billy McLean, the shearing shed at Dagworth Station was burnt down during a furious gun battle, resulting not only in the destruction of the shed but the loss of 140 sheep (jumbucks). Despite rain during the night, dawn on Sunday brought fine weather. At first light Bob Macpherson, the owner of Dagworth, and Constable Daly attempted to track the raiders without success, for the rain had been sufficient to obliterate all tracks. However, they were at least able to ascertain that the unionists had traveled upstream towards Kynuna, because they had left several gates open. The morning after the shed was burnt Bob Macpherson (The Squatter) and three policemen, Senior Constable Austin Cafferty (Badge no. 420), Constable Michael Daly (Badge no. 89) and Constable Robert Dyer (Badge No. 175) rode down to the four-mile billabong to arrest the unionists camped there, but instead found the body of Samuel Hoffmeister. The swagman he up and he jumped in the water-hole, Drowning himself by the coolibah tree... So amidst this extremely violent and widespread background of the 1894 Shearers Strike at Dagworth Station, where the shearing shed was burnt down in a fierce gun battle, Banjo Paterson arrived with his fiancee, Sarah Riley. One evening Christina Macpherson played for him Craigielee, and Banjo immediately took a liking to the tune and it would seem, not the only thing that took his fancy. Drawing on these events; Waltzing Matilda was conceived. ...and his ghost may now be heard.