Where "Waltz Matilda" Comes From
"Waltzing Matilda" draws on two pieces of Australian bush slang: "waltzing," meaning walking or tramping the roads, and "Matilda," a bushman's word for the bedroll or swag in which a traveller carried their belongings, slung over one shoulder — recorded from the 1880s. Put together, "waltzing Matilda" meant tramping the roads with everything you owned on your back. Banjo Paterson wrote the song in 1895 while staying at Dagworth Station, a cattle property near Winton in central Queensland.
The song became world-famous and is now considered Australia's unofficial national anthem. Its enduring power comes partly from its subject matter — a swagman who drowns himself rather than be arrested by troopers after stealing a jumbuck (sheep) — and partly from the vividness of the landscape: the billabong, the coolibah tree, the ghost still camped by the waterhole. The song was inspired, it's believed, by events from the 1891 Shearers' Strike and a real drowning at Combo Waterhole on the property.
Source: Wikipedia — "Waltzing Matilda"
"Back in the depression, plenty of blokes had to waltz Matilda from town to town looking for work."
How Aussies Actually Use It
On its own, "to waltz Matilda" simply describes travelling by foot with your gear as a swag, most associated with the itinerant rural workers of the 1890s Depression era who moved from station to station chasing seasonal work like shearing.
Today it's used more as a nostalgic or historical reference than everyday speech — usually in connection with the song, bush poetry, or classic Australian identity, rather than describing an actual hike.
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