G'day Neil,

To expand on Mark Ross's remarks; 'Banjo' Paterson produced the poem's words at Winton Station in Queensland in 1895. The tune he had was Christina MacPherson's memory of an arrangement of Barr's tune for The bonnie Wood of Craigielea.

The song was popular locally, around Winton, but Paterson sold the poem with "a heap of other old rubbish" for something like £3 a few years later (interesting story ... but let's not get the waters too murky ...!) and it was reset in a 'simpler' - more "pop" song style to a simplified version of Christina's tune. This was used as an advertising handout for Inglis's "Billy Tea" some time round 1904 ... and found its way all over the range of Australians. Its popularity in WW I is attested by contemporary accounts and its appearance in one of CJ Dennis's poems in his "Ginger Mick" cycle, written during WW I.

It is interesting that Marie Cowan, who did the re-arrangement, never claimed any trace of authorship ... but her husband claimed copyright after her death in 1939. Now an American company, on the strength of buying this copyright (which, of course, expired in 1989, under Australian law) claims to hold a valid copyright on Waltzing Matilda!

(See current thread "Hypercopyrightivity" ... ?)

Regards,

Bob Bolton