Chapter 3 – Waltzing Matilda

There are three songs guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat of even the most nonchalant and carefree expatriate Australian: Advance Australia Fair, our national anthem; I Still Call Australia Home, Peter Allen’s call to those far from their native land; and Waltzing Matilda, ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s ode to a uniquely Australian character, and characteristic. To ‘waltz matilda’ is a very iconic form of travel. It means to carry your swag, to be on the road, to travel the Wallaby Track. In the early days of Australia’s development, it was often the only realistic mode of travel for those whose destination was the Outback. During the Great Depression, over a third of the Australian workforce spent time on the track, ‘waltzing their matildas’, as they sought employment across the length and breadth of the country. Waltzing Matilda, Australia’s best-known song, was one of the first songs heard from space. It was somehow fitting this song from Earth’s last frontier should be the first Australian song heard from the final frontier. Accordingly, on commencing my own walkabout, and ‘waltzing matilda’ on my own Australian journey, it was fitting the first stop be Combo Waterhole: the billabong the swagman threw himself into all those years ago.