billabong. An originally aboriginal word for a section of still water adjacent to a river, cut off by a change in the watercourse, cf. an oxbow lake. In the Australian outback, a billabong generally retains water longer than the watercourse itself, so it may be the only water for miles around. billy.
According to local legend, that billabong is Combo Waterhole, outside Kynuna in outback Queensland.
waltzing Matilda: to waltz Matilda
To carry a swag; to travel the road. A matilda is a swag, the roll or bundle of possessions carried by an itinerant worker or swagman.
The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat.
In the song, the man lives in the bush and sleeps under the stars (which is where the name comes from; 'Waltzing' meaning to travel by foot, and the 'Matilda' is his swag or tent). He captures and kills a sheep - or a jumbuck - as the song puts it, and finds himself face to face with a 'squatter' or rich landowner.
Billabong is a term that derives from the language of the Wiradjuri people in south western New South Wales, and describes a pond or pool of water that is left behind when a river alters course or after floodwaters recede3.
A billy is a small metal can used for boiling water over an open fire. It's short for billycan. It almost always means to 'make tea' but if you are sitting around an open fire (camping for example) and someone says “I'll boil the billy” this can just mean “boil some water” for coffee, tea or washing up water.
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, “You'll come a-waltzing Matilda** with me.” Yet possibly the most famous swagman of them all was a Welshman, Joseph Jenkins.
'Matilda is an old Teutonic female name meaning 'mighty battle maid'. This may have informed the use of 'Matilda' as a slang term to mean a de facto wife who accompanied a wanderer. In the Australian bush a man's swag was regarded as a sleeping partner, hence his 'Matilda'.
It was a mutual love affair for the guys who left their homes in the U.S. to fight with and for the Aussies. On George Washington's birthday, Feb. 22, 1943, the Marines marched a parade through Melbourne. During this parade, the 1st Marine Division Band decided to play the Australian folk favorite, Waltzing Matilda.
The figure of the "jolly swagman", represented most famously in Banjo Paterson's bush poem "Waltzing Matilda", became a folk hero in 19th-century Australia, and is still seen today as a symbol of anti-authoritarian values that Australians considered to be part of the national character.
swagman. / (ˈswæɡˌmæn, -mən) / noun plural -men. Australian and NZ informal a labourer who carries his personal possessions in a pack or swag while travelling about in search of work; vagrant workerAlso called: swagger, swaggie.
Jumbuck is an Australian word for a 'sheep'. It is best known from Banjo Paterson's use of it in Waltzing Matilda.
Found beside creeks and billabongs growing to about 5 metres this tree is an indicator of the fresh water. During November and December masses of small edible berries are produced and turn red or black when ripe. They are sweet and can be eaten raw.
The song describes war as futile and gruesome, while criticising those who seek to glorify it. This is exemplified in the song by the account of a young Australian serviceman who is maimed during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War.
'Waltzing Matilda', a poem by Banjo Paterson, was first recorded 30 years after it was written in 1895. The melody of the song is attributed to Christina Macpherson, whose family owned the property Dagworth Station near Winton in Queensland, where Paterson was staying when he composed the poem.
5. Sheila = Girl. Yes, that is the Australian slang for girl.
The true story behind Waltzing Matilda involves a complicated love triangle, and the rumoured murder of a striking shearer. It all took place in a time when Australia was close to a civil war in the outback. These conversations were recorded in the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton.
Look up "chuck a wobbly" and you'd find it means to have a tantrum or lose your temper. And it originated in no lesser a place than the federal parliament, when one Senator admonished another to: "Stop chucking a wobbly, Senator.
So, what did the man boil in his billy? Billabong water, of course! And, naturally, he threw in some tea leaves from his “tucker bag” (the bag that held his food stuffs) and let them boil and simmer in the water.
The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or “swagman“, making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing or stealing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat.
(“Banjo”) Paterson, “Waltzing Matilda,” is the unofficial national anthem of Australia known the world over. Paterson's “Waltzing Matilda” became Australia's best-known song—part folk hymn and part national anthem.
Early Australian settlers brewed their tea in a Billy; a metal can with a wire handle, filled. with water and suspended over an open fire. When the water boils, it is removed from. the fire with a forked stick, and a fistful of tea leaves are added.
Etymology. Although there is a suggestion that the word may be associated with the Aboriginal billa (meaning water; cf. Billabong), it is widely accepted that the term billycan is derived from bouilli can, the name given to the empty cannisters used for preserving Soup and bouilli and other foods.
Despite it's status as the official national anthem, Waltzing Matilda (1895), a more uplifting tune with lyrics by Banjo Paterson telling the story of a criminal stealing a sheep, is still widely regarded as Australia's 'unofficial' national anthem. Advance Australia fair.