After re-reading this thread on Waltzing Matilda, there are a couple of points to be made.

- At the time that Paterson was meant to write Waltzing Matilda he was touring Australia and collecting material for his book "Old Bush Songs" - Australian premier Folklorist John Meredith, in researching his book (co-authored by Hugh Anderson)"Folk song of Australia and the men and women who sang them" found a number of older people (1940/50's) who had remembered alternate verses and versions of Waltzing Matilda and they claimed to learnt them prior to Paterson publishing Waltzing Matilda (note most were fragments and not a complete song). BTW, Back in the 1980's prior to the Australian Bi-centenial the decenants of Paterson took legal action against anybody who questioned if Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda.

Bruce D