1891 Australian shearers' strike wrote his novel in 1892, T"he workingman's paradise", with two aims: to support fundraising efforts for the imprisoned unionists, and to explain unionism and socialism to those who would listen. Banjo Paterson's song Waltzing Matilda, an unofficial Australian anthem, was also written about this era of shearers' industrial disputes in Queensland. Helen Palmer's song 'The Ballad Of 1891', set to music by Doreen Jacobs, details the lead up to the strike and aftermath. The 1975 film Sunday Too Far Away, directed by Ken Hannam has been partly inspired by the events surrounding this strike. The site of the striking shearers'
Waltzing Matilda at the water hole, Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee, And he sang as he put him away in the tucker bag, You'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me. "Chorus": You'll come a waltzing Matilda my darling, You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag, You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.</poem> Some corrections in the manuscript are evident; the verses originally read (differences in italics): <poem style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong, Under the shade of a Coolibah tree, And he sang as he looked