Waltzing Matilda (Songs Abroad/Australia)


Australia's National Anthem in all but name. Originally a dramatic narrative by poet A.B. "Banjo" Paterson set to a derived tune in 1895 by Christina Macpherson. Her family owned the Dawson Homestead, purportedly the site of a suicidal incident loosely akin to Paterson's story. Marie Cowan revised the words in 1903 as a jingle for Billy Tea, making the song nationally famous. A "waltzing matilda" is a knapsack, a "billabong" a waterhole.

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Australia's National Anthem in all but name. Originally a dramatic narrative by poet A.B. "Banjo" Paterson set to a derived tune in 1895 by Christina Macpherson. Her family owned the Dawson Homestead, purportedly the site of a suicidal incident loosely akin to Paterson's story. Marie Cowan revised the words in 1903 as a jingle for Billy Tea, making the song nationally famous. A "waltzing matilda" is a knapsack, a "billabong" a waterhole.
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