In the song Waltzing Matilda - What is a Jumbuck?
Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's best-known bush ballad, and has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (landowner), and three mounted policemen pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a
Waltzing Matilda swagman camped by a billabong Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his "Billy" boiled, "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me." "Chorus:" Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me, And he sang as he watched and waited till his "Billy" boiled, "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me." Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong, Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee, And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag, "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me." "(Chorus)" Up rode the squatter,