A truly wonderful version can be heard on Timberhead CD "Harbors of Home", with Gordon Bok . Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir. The song was written by Henry Lawson, words and Gerry Hallom music..... This is a poem from the great Australian bush poet Henry Lawson. Gerry Hallom, a British songmaker, set it to music and sang it at the Eisteddfod Festival, where Gordon Bok heard it and eventually recorded it. The story of a swagman's wandering life is told and shown that the life was not conducive to family-making, so if the swagman wanted to marry, he would have to give up his life style, the bad and the good together.