Once a jolly swagman, camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolabah tree.
And he sang as he watched, and waited 'til his billy boiled.
"Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?"
I find it really odd that the words of a poem by Banjo Patterson, which was then turned into a song; about a sheep thief, became a de facto national anthem for Australia and one which is sung at Rugby matches, in spite of Australians' utter hopelessness at singing football songs.
What I don't find all that surprising is that the poem which was actually based on real life events, has become the vehicle for sanitisation and myth making.
By way of background in 1890 the manager of Logan Downs Station, which was a massive pastoral sheep station, a Mr Charles Fairbain, tried to enforce upon the shearers who worked on the station, a set of employment contracts and conditions which would have seen them take increased hours for reduced pay and at the same time, smash their ability to negotiate a collective arrangement through the union. The conflict stretched on so long that it ruined their Christmas and New Years' and spilled over into a strike which began on 5th Jan 1891. All of this was occuring during the midst of a recession.
The shearers had a short list of demands which they weren't willing to compromise on until they had been met. They demanded the following:
- Continuation of existing rates of pay at 1890 rates.
- Protection of workers' rights and privileges, including standardised hours.
- Just and equitable agreements and the ability to negotiate through the union.
- Exclusion of low-cost Chinese labour, which undercut their pay rates.
Politically this is all going on around the time of the formation of the Labor Party in Queensland and the local unions hoped to form into a sufficiently large enough bloc to put seats into the Colonial Queensland Parliament.
Queensland Labor took on these things as policy; including excluding foreign labour from working in Australia, which led to Labor Party policy being adopted by the Protectionist Party and this became the basis for the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which is more commonly known as the White Australia Policy.
It should be noted at this point that the Australian Socialist League, opposed the anti-Chinese demands, even though they were also heavily involved in the strike and would also eventually join the Labor Party.
Yet again we see in history, a racist underclass who is trying to protect their own, forming political alliances with parties and entities who actively seek to undercut their pay and conditions, if it is immediately politically expedient. We've also got another national song in Australia (along with Advance Australia Fair) which is rooted in racism.
Strikes tend to be infectious because collective effort yields bigger results than smaller pockets of dissent and soon there were strikes all across Queensland. This is where the story turns ugly.
On multiple occasions, the Queensland Government sent in what was still a colonial army, to attack strikers. Naturally this escalated and shearers who were on strike then formed camps outside of townships; and then armed themselves.
Striking unionists retaliated to arrest and imprisonment by raiding shearing sheds, harassing non-union labour and committing acts of sabotage, although the incidents of actual violence or arson were few.
The whole thing gradually descended into madness as across Queensland, there were thousands of instances of armed soldiers arresting strike leaders and needing to protect non-union labour. Basically for four months in 1891, from February until May, central Queensland was practically on the brink of civil war at any moment.
It was really only after the Premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, called in the military on multiple occasions, that what eventually became known as the Great Shearers' Strike was broken. However, that didn't stop flare ups from happening over the next decade and it is in this climate that the conditions for the story of what would become Waltzing Matilda exist.
In September of 1894, some shearers at Dagworth Station were yet again on strike. On this occasion situation broke into violence, with the striking shearers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at Dagworth, killing dozens of sheep.
After arresting some of the striking shearers for arson and malicious damage, thee owner of Dagworth Station and three mounted state troopers gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at Four Mile Creek south of Kynuna at 12.30pm on 2 September, 1894.
This had ramifications across Queensland and the colonial police arrested thirteen union leaders across the colony and they were charged sedition and conspiracy, taken to Rockhampton for the trial; convicted, and sentenced to three years in gaol on St Helena Island Prison.
I guess that it makes sense that Australia should want a de facto national anthem which has to do with a vague attempt to stand up to authority and a vague kind of justice being metered out by happenstance. People who want to assume the role of the swagman can feel a sense pride in standing up for what you believe in and people who want to assume the role of authority putting down criminal acts in the name of justice can also feel that same sense of pride.
We look to this rather than any national formation story because Australia didn't assert its independence through a war but a vote, and the racist white elements of society simply refuse to acknowledge that the whole country was stolen through brutality, genocide, and in one instance complete genocide. Our actual national anthem was first sung for the Highland Society of NSW, which would become part of the Advance Australia faction which contributed to the White Australia Policy being adopted in 1901.
We would rather take detached notions of sanitised mischief than actually face up to our country's formation sins.
...and his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong.
"Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?"
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