The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular (original soundtrack) The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular (original soundtrack) All poetry narrated in the musical was written by Banjo Paterson, including ""Waltzing Matilda"" (for which the music was written by M. Cowan). Bruce Rowland, who composed the instrumental music for both the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River film and its sequel 1988 film The Man from Snowy River II (American title: "Return to Snowy River"), composed special arrangements of some of his music for the musical. Rowland was the musical arranger who also conducted the orchestra for the musical. Lee Kernaghan and Garth Porter wrote the music and
Waltzing Matilda as "The Craigielee" march music for brass band by Australian composer Thomas Bulch. It has been widely accepted that "Waltzing Matilda" is probably based on the following story: <poem>In Queensland in 1891 the Great Shearers' Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier of Queensland, Samuel Griffith, called in the military. In September 1894, some shearers at Dagworth Station were again on strike. The situation turned violent with the striking shearers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at Dagworth, killing dozens of sheep. The owner