What is Waltzing Matilda?

Waltzing Matilda is the most widely known Australian folk song and is often called the country's unofficial national anthem. It tells the story of a wandering bush worker (a swagman) who camps by a billabong, steals a sheep (a jumbuck), and drowns himself in the water rather than be captured by the squatter and three police troopers who come to arrest him.

The lyrics were written by the bush poet Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson in January 1895 while staying at Dagworth Station near Winton in central Queensland, owned by his friend Bob Macpherson. Paterson set the words to a tune played to him by Bob's sister Christina Macpherson, who had picked up the melody from a Scottish military march called 'The Craigielee'. The song was first performed publicly at the North Gregory Hotel in Winton in April 1895.

The song was adopted commercially in 1903 by the Inglis biscuit company, which used it in advertisements with adjusted lyrics. The version used today is closer to the original Paterson text, with minor variations. Australians voted for Waltzing Matilda as a candidate for the national anthem in the 1977 plebiscite, where it won 28.3 per cent of the vote, second to Advance Australia Fair on 43.6 per cent. The song remains the unofficial sporting anthem at events like the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games when the official anthem is not appropriate.

Waltzing Matilda is sung at the Australian War Memorial each ANZAC Day, played by Australian Defence Force bands at parades, and used as a marching song by Australian regiments overseas. Slim Dusty's 1967 recording is one of the most popular versions, and Eric Bogle's 1971 anti-war song 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda', which retells the Gallipoli campaign from the perspective of a wounded veteran, has become a Remembrance Day standard. The Waltzing Matilda Centre at Winton, opened in 1998, celebrates the song's heritage.