Australian country music link Australia's vast distances. Isolation and loneliness of life in the Australian bush has been another theme. For much of its history, Australia's bush music belonged to an oral and folkloric tradition, and was only later published in print in volumes such as Banjo Paterson's "Old Bush Songs", in the 1890s. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential early Australian country song, influenced more by Celtic folk ballads than by American Country and Western music. The lyrics were composed by the poet Banjo Paterson in 1895. This strain of Australian country music, with lyrics focusing
Waltzing Matilda mounted on his thoroughbred. Down came the troopers, one, two, and three. "Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag? You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me." "(Chorus)" Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong. "You'll never catch me alive!" said he And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me." "(Chorus)"</poem> The lyrics contain many distinctively Australian English words, some now rarely used outside the song. These include: The lyrics of "Waltzing Matilda" have been changed since it was written. In a facsimile of the first part