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Origins
of Christina Macpherson tune
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The creationAccording to Christina Macpherson, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was created in the sitting room of Dagworth Station in January of 1895 with the help of a young solicitor and poet, ‘Banjo’ Paterson. Christina Macpherson was at Dagworth for the Christmas of 1894, having travelled from Victoria to be with her father and brothers for the first family gathering since the death of her mother in early December. On the journey up to Dagworth, Christina had stopped to meet her father at Winton, where her old school friend Sarah Riley lived. Sarah’s fiancée of eight years, Banjo Paterson, was staying with the Rileys at the time and the pair were also invited to Dagworth as guests. Paterson was country-born and a horse-lover; in fact, his name ‘Banjo’ came from one of his father’s favourite horses. He enjoyed riding around Dagworth Station with Christina’s brother Bob Macpherson. During their rides, Banjo and Bob visited the scenes of a recent dispute between the shearers and their employer. The shearing shed on the property had been burned in protest at a wage agreement proposed by Queensland squatters and later a swagmenshearer who had taken part in the disturbance, ‘Frenchy’ Hoffmeister, was found dead at a nearby camp. Christina’s memory of how ‘Waltzing Matilda’ came into being was reported in an undated letter to Thomas Wood (view image): [Banjo Paterson] was on a visit to Winton, North Queensland, and I was staying with my brothers about 80 miles from Winton. We went in to Winton for a week or so & one day I played (from ear) a tune which I had heard played by a band at the Races in Warnambool [sic], a country town in the Western District of Victoria. Mr Patterson [sic] asked what it wasI could not tell him, & he then said he thought he could write some lines to it. He then and there wrote the first verse. We tried it and thought it went well, so he then wrote the other verses. I might add that in a short time everyone in the District was singing it...When Mr Patterson returned to Sydney he wrote and asked me to send him the tune. I am no musician but did my best: & later on he told me he had sent it on to a musical friend of his who thought it would make a good bush song. It was included in the Student’s Song Book and was frequently sung at the Community Singing... |
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