Waltzing Matilda nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The original lyrics were written in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and were first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that it has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, in the Queensland outback, where Paterson wrote the lyrics. In 2012, to remind Australians of the song's significance, Winton organised the inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day to be held on 6 April, the anniversary of its first performance. The song was first recorded
Waltzing Matilda waltzing Matilda with me. Up came the squatter a-riding his thoroughbred, Up rose the troopers—one, two, a and three. "Whose the jolly jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag? You'll come a waltzing Matilda with we." Up sprang the swagman and jumped in the waterhole, Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree. And his voice can be heard as it sings in the billabongs, Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me. ("Chorus")</poem> By contrast with the original, and also with subsequent versions, the chorus of all the verses was the same in this version. This is also apparently the only version that