Waltzing Matilda or recordings of bush ballads include anything to suggest it preceded Paterson. Meanwhile, handwritten manuscripts from the time the song originated indicate the song's origins with Paterson and Christina Macpherson, as do their own recollections and other pieces of evidence. There has been speculation about the relationship "Waltzing Matilda" bears to an English song, "The Bold Fusilier" (also known as "Marching through Rochester", referring to Rochester in Kent and the Duke of Marlborough), a song sung to the same tune and dated by some back to the 18th century but first printed in 1900. There is, however, no documentary proof
A Voice from the Town A Voice from the Town A Voice from the Town is a poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in "The Bulletin" magazine on 20 October 1894. In "Up The Country," Lawson had criticised "The City Bushman" such as Banjo Paterson who tended to romanticise bush life. Paterson, in turn, accused Lawson of representing bush life as nothing but doom and gloom, famously ending with the line ""For the bush will never suit you, and you'll never suit the bush."" This exchange sparked what is known as the Bulletin Debate, mainly between Paterson