Who'll Come A-Waltzing Matilda With Me?

I liked the jolly swagman

camped by his billabong

but Gough, who was PM then,

insisted on Advance Australia Fair

even though we all said, 'Wot's this "girt 

by sea" bit – who the heck's Gert?'

Still, anything was better than,

'God - save - our - GRAY - shushQueen'

not that I wished her any harm, mind,

but it was boring slow, a dirge.

So now we sing that our hearts 

are young and free, our beauty

rich and rare – in this ancient continent

usurped from its first people.

We might do better 

to remember the starving swaggie

tramping the outback roads

looking for work or just a feed.

England colonised this country

with starving men and women

and with political rebels, 

all brought here on prison ships.

Now we turn away boat-loads

of hungry families and 

political refugees. 

Or imprison them worse 

than in those convict ships or even

the stone-walled hells like Port Arthur. 

Yet our anthem says

 – get this –

'For those who've come across the seas

we've boundless plains to share.'

So – 'Down came a jumbuck

to drink by the billabong.'

(Down came a sheep

to drink from the waterhole.

Those other words we took

from the first people

while we also took their land

and their children.)

It was the Depression. Many

tramped the endless tracks.

'Up jumped the swagman

and grabbed it with glee.'

'He sang as he stowed

that jumbuck in his tuckerbag.' 

And then came the rich landowner,

and then came the cops. It was

a serious crime. And the system 

then as now was skewed against the poor.

'Australians all, let us rejoice.'

'We've golden soil and wealth for toil.'

' "You'll never take me alive!" said he.'

What became of our nation of rebels?

'... his ghost may be heard ...'

Advance, Australia Fair.


Written for dVerse: National Anthem Poetry 

Advance Australia Fair original lyrics.
(To be truthful, they no longer include sharing our plains.)

Lyrics of Waltzing Matilda

Some people, including me, would have preferred Waltzing Matilda as our national anthem, but now I like the idea that it remains what it always was: our outlaw anthem.