It refers to the wandering hoboes of the Depression era, especially, but also before - to wander from town to town, looking for work and living off what people give you or you can scrounge. These days it probably fits better with the "going walkabout" travelling thing a lot of young Aussies do before university, but the term isn't used to much these days.
A "Matilda" was a bedroll, so to waltz Matilda was to carry your bedroll with you from place to place. It was also known as a swag, and the people who carried one swagmen, hence "Once a jolly swagman, camped by a billabong", a billabong behing a waterhole. ;)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 03:34 pm (UTC)A "Matilda" was a bedroll, so to waltz Matilda was to carry your bedroll with you from place to place. It was also known as a swag, and the people who carried one swagmen, hence "Once a jolly swagman, camped by a billabong", a billabong behing a waterhole. ;)