While it all seems really straightforward and presents itself as a simple story of a man in trouble, it is actually referring to events that happened in the late 1800s involving a sheep shearers strike that turned violent and left a man dead.Īs the true story goes, in 1891, Australia experienced a Great Sheep Shearer's Strike where several of the shearers went on strike and began firing their guns, killing over one hundred sheep. Rather than be captured, he kills himself in the nearby billabong or watering hole. The owner, clearly mad, gets the police after him.

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. 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). It's not just about a swagman living in the bush. The household song has a much more loaded history than many realise. While the song sounds like a 'boppy' tune, it actually has quite a dark meaning behind it. Based on a true story, it is about a man who lives in the Australian outback in his swag, whereupon he gets himself into trouble by killing the sheep of a landowner nearby. The song (originally a poem) was written by Australian poet, Banjo Paterson in the late 19th Century while he was staying at Dagworth Station, a cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland. Molly Ringwald used the spelling Mathilda for her daughter.Waltzing Matilda has been labelled Australia's 'unofficial' national anthem. Highly popular in England and Australia, Matilda has a choice of great nicknames: Tillie for the bold, Mattie for the shy, Tilda for the slightly more eccentric, such as Tilda Swinton, born Katherine Matilda. Trivia tidbit: The Matilda in the Australian song 'Waltzing Matilda' refers not to a person but to the knapsacks that swing, or waltz, on the backs of itinerant laborers as they walk along. In literature, Matilda appeared in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby. Matilda was introduced to the English-speaking world by the eleventh century Matilda of Flanders, queen of William the Conqueror, then used for his granddaughter, known as Maud.

But the renaissance of this name of the charming Roald Dahl heroine was assured when Michelle Williams and the late Heath Ledger chose Matilda for their daughter. The comeback of this sweet vintage name, one of the most stylish girls' names starting with M, has been prompted by a boomlet of starbaby Matildas, beginning with chef Gordon Ramsey's in 2002 and Moon Unit Zappa's two years later.

A waltz for matilda series