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 leading a water bag
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water hole
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee
And he said as he put him away in the tucker bag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda my darling
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
Waltzing Matilda leading a water bag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
Down came the squatter a riding on his thoroughbred
Down came policemen one two three
Where is the jumbuck you've got in the tuckerbag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda my darling
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
Waltzing Matilda leading a tucker bag
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
But the swagman he up and he jumped in the waterhole
Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree
And his ghost can be heard as it sings in the billabong
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
This is the original version of Waltzing Matilda, written by the Poet Banjo Paterson in 1897. It is known as Australia's unofficial national anthem and even has its own museum in Winton, Queensland, the nearest town to the place it was written.
Banjo Paterson wrote the lyrics of Waltzing Matilda while visiting the Macpherson family, owners of Dagworth Station in outback Queensland. Paterson himself said that he wrote the poem at the station. It may be partly based on an older folk song.
A few years before Banjo Paterson wrote the poem, there had been a battle at Dagworth between striking shearers and the station owners in which the shearing shed was burned down and one man was killed – thought to have been a union organiser Samuel “Frenchy” Hoffmeister. The song about the swagman who jumped into the billabong may be a reference to Frenchy's death and to the shearers' strike (a major political issue in Queensland then). The three troopers who came down to the billabong with the squatter were presumably on the side of the property owners. The lyrics are not historically accurate and some think the poem has incorporated the story of a possible suicide by drowning in a billabong on the neighbouring Nynuna Station, about 50-60 km to the NW.