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 of the original manuscript, included in "Singer of the Bush", a collection of Paterson's works published by Lansdowne Press in 1983, the first two verses appear as follows: <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 at the old billy boiling, Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me? "Chorus:" Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my darling, Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me? Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag, Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me? Down came a jumbuck to drink