Walzing Matilda

When Jonathan was about two, we had a CD of kids' songs that he demanded to hear every time we got in the car.  Since I was driving him to and from the Texas child development center then, 30 minutes each way each day, I learned every single word of every single song on that collection.  Every. Single. One.

One of the songs was "Waltzing Matilda". 

"Once a jolly swagman, stopped beside a billabong, under the shade of a koo-lee-bah tree..."

I thought the song was nonsense, like Lewis Carol's poem "Jabberwocky".  It has enough real English words in it for you to get a rough idea of what it's about, but lots and lots of nonsense words in between. 

"And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled: Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?"

I mean, what's a billabong?  Or a koo-lee-bah tree?  And who boils billy? 

"Down came a jumbuck to drink beside the billabong.  Up jumped the swagman and seized him with glee!"

So, walking through the Melbourne aquarium soon after landing here, I was shocked.  Shocked! I tell you, to spot a sign that changed my whole world!  It read:  "Billabong exhibit." 

What?  A billabong is a thing? 

Turns out that a billabong is a swampy area where a river makes a wide bend.  An oxbow lake.

"And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag, You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me."

So the aquarium was my first indication that "Waltzing Matilda" might use real words, not nonsense ones, but Australian real words.  Like billabong. 

"Up came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred.  Down came the troopers one, two, three."

My next indication that "Waltzing Matilda" was an Australian thing was the fact that the bands dressed in Australian flag attire on Australia day walked around alternating between playing the Australian national anthem and "Waltzing Matilda". 

"Where's that jolly jumbuck, you've got in your tucker bag?  You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me!"

So I did what any curious scholar would do.  I asked Google.  Turns out that a coolibah tree (note the spelling) is a type of -- you guessed it -- eucalyptus.  And a swagman is an itinerant worker.  And the song concerns a conflict between sheep owners and the workers that sheared them back in the 1890s. 

"Up jumped the swagman, and jumped into the billabong.  You'll never catch me alive! said he."

To go "waltzing Matilda" apparently means to travel around as a worker with a bag, affectionately known as a "Matilda", but more precisely called a swag.  So a swagman is a bagman.  What, then is the tucker bag?  It carries food.  Like a jumbuck.  Which is a sheep.  What?  And billy is a can, where you would boil tea, or something, I suppose. 

"And his ghost may be heard as you pass beside the billabong.  'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?'"

But why a squatter?  The sheep owner was likely just a squatter on the land.  But for some reason the government respected his rights over that of the worker, and he got rich off of that.  Hence he rode the thoroughbred.  And the troopers, who are policemen, were with the squatter, not the swagman.  And the poor swagman got in trouble for poaching the sheep.  And died.  Tragically.  But you can hear his ghost.  I guess.

"Waltzing Matilda.  Waltzing Matilda.  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?  And his ghost may be heard as you pass beside the billabong.  Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

So totally nonsense, yes.  But historical nonsense.  And Australian nonsense.  With words that, at one time, even had Australian meaning. 

What a crazy world we live in!