G'day all & sundry,

Of course, the problem is that BusbitterfraeScotland starts by reading two contrary texts - Paterson's poem starts:

Oh! There once was a swagman camped in a billabong ... nothing about being jolly. It is the Inglis Bros (Billy Tea) advertisement that renders him jolly ... after Paterson had sold the rights to the poem ... sort of like what happened to Tolkein, after the film morons get hold of his work. Of course the Billy Tea version, jolly &c doesn't say "drowning himself", but "You'll never take me alive" ... so all the following discussion is irrelevant.

There is an interesting deeper and more devious background to Paterson's poem and purposes - somewhere between the woolsheds and bedrooms of "Dagworth Station" ... you'll have to chase up a few links ... and, even then, you are not yet going to get the bits that the literary set would prefer were forgotten.

Regards,

Bob Bolton