ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Anyone else know today is the innaugural Waltzing Matilda Day. Apparantly the anniversary of the songs first public performance at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton.

What do you think?

Should it be a public holiday?

Should it be our official National Anthem?

Is it a good poem?

Do we have too many 'national' day's?

Is it appropriate that our national song is about a thieving vagrant who commits suicide?

Marty.

G'day Marty Warooa.

No I don't think the song needs any special recognition. It's only a bush song, no more significant than Click go the Shears or Nine Miles from Gundagai.


I don't think it is suitable as a national song because there is really nothing in it that reflects Australian national aspirations or true character.

If you look at it closely, it is actually about class division. The sort of thing that still remains in England where the lord of the manor deals severely with " poachers ".
In this case, the wealthy squatter on a luxury thoroughbred horse who can get the police to come at his bidding and sort out his inconveniences.
A wealthy grazier could easily afford to give one beast to a homeless person, not to mention that the horseman is a squatter which I think means that he acquired the land holdings by just helping himself to them, an apparently more substantial case of thievery than taking a sheep.

And apart from any moralising, if we don't fancy anachronisms, then the expression waltzing matilda is just as out of date as girt.

Maybe by the time this present federal government has run it's course, the national song should be The Pub With No Beer.

A very patrotic and well recognised song but not something worth a public holiday or being our National Anthem.



Bob

Patriotic ????? really ?

Yes Neville I take it you don't agree ??? Only got to go to a rugby match and hear the whole crowd singing to feel the hackles on your neck rise.


Almost as good as when the Bronco's beat the knights


Bob

I suppose it's better than that French one where they are marching through the land and ready to carve up anyone who looks a bit unrevoutionary.

I agree with Neville. Waltzing Matilda is a very simple folk song and does not reflect our Australian culture, our aspirations, our past, or our pride in our country - all things you'd expect from a National Anthem. It's just a song with simple lyrics that are easy to remember.

National Anthem - no.

Holiday - no.

That said, I haven't met anyone yet who likes Advance Australia Fair. It's too hard to sing (who sings that high?) and to remember.

I've always thought that I Am Australian by Keith Woodley (of the Seekers) would make a good national anthem. Australians are more than just convicts from Britain, we now come from all walks of life and from all over the world.

I Am Australian
Lyrics by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton
music by Bruce Woodley
I came from the dream-time, from the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart, the keeper of the flame.
I stood upon the rocky shore, I watched the tall ships come.
For forty thousand years I’ve been the first Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I came upon the prison ship, bowed down by iron chains.
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.
I’m a settler, I’m a farmer’s wife on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man, I became Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I’m the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road
I’m a child of the depression, I saw the good times come
I’m a bushy, I’m a battler, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I’m a teller of stories, I’m a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira, I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse, I’m Ned Kelly on the run
I’m the one who waltzed Matilda, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I’m the hot wind from the desert, I’m the black soil of the plains
I’m the mountains and the valleys, I’m the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky, the rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
I am, you are, we are Australian.

We are one .. We are many .. We are Australian!

Did anyone notice the name of that hotel - North Gregory - kinda has a familiar ring to it.

Onya Heather . . wonder if Gregory North has ever done a gig at the North Gregory?

I reckon the story behind the story of Waltzing Matilda is very interesting - how the lyric came from Paterson's stay at Dagworth and was influence by the shearers strikes of those turbulent times, and how McPherson's daughter introduced the tune Craigielee.

How did the original poem/lyrics get changed? Who changed them? Why?

Keeping with the Scottish theme . . for what it's worth I reckon Eric Bogle's The Band Played Waltzing Matilda is one of the great all time songs.

Marty

Worked with Dennis O'Keefe the other week and he filled me in a bit about his book launch on this very subject. Great read.

http://www.waltzingmatilda.net.au/the-story

Neil