WALTZING MATILDA
Sir-yYour reprint article from the Radio Times in which Dr. Thomas Wood gives the story of "Waltzing Matilda," the Australian Battle Hymn, is like so many other articles written about things Australian. It is interesting up to a point and thereafter becomes comic. Dr. Wood’s own search for the song is no doubt authentic, but the story of how "Banjo" Paterson came to write it must, in parts, have come out of the can of beer quaffed by the Doctor and his genial host, T. J. Shanahan, .of the North Gregory Hotel. I worked alongside "Banjo" on various newspapers, and the statement that Robert
McPherson, of Dogworth, had to explain to the poet that the action of a man carrying his swag was known as "Waltzing Matilda". ... Well, Australia should get a good laugh out of that one. The term "Waltzing Matilda" goes back to "Banjo’s" childhood days, and was so much part of the Australian language as to be part of the back chat on the streets of every city. Incidentally, also, a billabong is not a waterhole. It js a backwash from a river.
J. M.
GILES
(Christchurch.) |
(We thank our correspondent, and hope that this time we have the true story.-Ed.)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19420724.2.9.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 161, 24 July 1942, Page 3
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206WALTZING MATILDA New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 161, 24 July 1942, Page 3
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