"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's best-known bush ballad, Waltzing Matilda has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem".
The title was Australian slang for a person travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "Matilda" (swag) slung over one's shoulder. The song relates the story of a vagrant man, or "Swagman", making a drink of "Billy" ( tin pot) tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray "Jumbuck" to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a landowner, and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" he commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby "Billabong" (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site.
What is a Jumbuck?
A JUMBUCK IS A SHEEP
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