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 one two three Whose is the jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag? You'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me But the swagman he up and he jumped in the water hole Drowning himself by the coolibah tree And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the billabong Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me? ("Chorus")</poem> In May 1988 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Chief Executive, John Sturman, presented five platinum awards, "which recognised writers who had created enduring works which have become a major part of the Australian culture", at the annual APRA Awards ceremony as part of