James Barr (composer) James Barr (composer) James Barr (1779–1860) was a Scottish composer who composed the tune which inspired the tune now used for the Australian traditional song "Waltzing Matilda." Born in Tarbolton in South Ayrshire, Barr taught music and worked for a publisher in Glasgow. Barr set several poems by his friend Robert Tannahill to music. According to Christina Macpherson, "Waltzing Matilda" was created in the sitting room of Dagworth Station in January 1895 with the help of a young solicitor and poet, "Banjo" Paterson. Tannahill wrote the words in 1805 and in 1818 Barr set them to music, possibly based on
MacPherson Church Colin MacPherson, who donated the church’s original lands. Rebuilt in the late 1860s, MacPherson Church is located on present-day Cliffdale Road in the Seventy-First Township. In 1793 MacPherson’s Meetinghouse members gathered informally under a shelter along the banks of Branson’s Creek. The Reverend Angus McDiarmid, who also worked at other area Presbyterian churches including Barbecue and Bluff, preached irregularly at the gatherings. By 1800, the congregants appointed a committee to construct a permanent structure and to officially establish MacPherson Church. The six-member committee decided to locate the permanent church building on five acres of land donated by Colin MacPherson, for