History of Australia (1851–1900) drovers, stockmen and shearers were popular during the 19th century. Convict and bushranger verses often railed against government tyranny. Classic bush songs on such themes include: The Wild Colonial Boy, Click Go The Shears, The Dying Stockman and Moreton Bay. 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. The lyrics of Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National anthem, and a quintessential early Australian country music song were composed by the poet Banjo
Waltzing Matilda waltzing Matilda with me. Up came the squatter a-riding his thoroughbred, Up rose the troopers—one, two, a and three. "Whose the jolly jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag? You'll come a waltzing Matilda with we." Up sprang the swagman and jumped in the waterhole, Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree. And his voice can be heard as it sings in the billabongs, Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me. ("Chorus")</poem> By contrast with the original, and also with subsequent versions, the chorus of all the verses was the same in this version. This is also apparently the only version that