The title of the song was Australian slang for travelling by foot (waltzing) with your belongings in a Matilda (swag) carried on your back.

The story is of an itinerant worker (swagman) who is camping by a billabong (watering hole). He is making tea in a billy can when he captures a stray sheep (jumbuck) to eat. The sheep’s owner (squatter) with three troopers (mounted police) pursue the swagman for theft. He shouts “You’ll never catch me alive“ and commits suicide by jumping into the billabong. After that his ghost haunts the billabong.

Waltzing Matilda is the most famous song in Australia. It is a bush ballad and is known as Australia’s “unofficial national anthem”. The words were written by the bush poet Banjo Patterson. The tune comes from a Scottish song, “Craigielee”, by James Barr and was passed on to Paterson by Christina Macpherson.

This song is really the sound of Australia. It is so central to Australian culture.

My name is John Fernon. I was born in Australia and I am an operatic bass-baritone. I studied singing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and was in the chorus of the Australian Opera for five years. I was then a freelance singer in London for 20 years which included occasionally working for the Nederlandse Reisopera in Enschede.