“The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away” Sheet Music (pdf).
“The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Performer: Alistair Hulett.
Lyrics: Roaring Jack.
Tune: Roaring Jack.
You came to this country in fetters and chains:
Outlaws and rebels with numbers for names;
And on the triangle were beaten and maimed;
Blood stained the soil of Australia.
Dookies and duchesses, flash lads and whores,
You worked their plantations and polished their floors;
Lived in their shadows and died in their wars;
Blood stained the soil of Australia.
Does it quicken your heartbeat to see tar and concrete
Cover the tracks on the old bullock dray?
Have you grown so heartless to christen it progress
When the swaggies have all waltzed Matilda away?
Driven like dogs from your own native home,
Hardship and poverty caused you to roam;
Over the bracken and over the foam;
Blood stained the soil of Australia.
Then in the fever for fortune and fame,
You caused the poor blacks to suffer the same;
Imprisoned on missions or hunted for game;
Blood stained the soil of Australia.
Does it quicken your heartbeat to see tar and concrete
Cover the tracks on the old bullock dray?
Have you grown so heartless to christen it progress
When the swaggies have all waltzed Matilda away?
It’s two hundred years since you came to this land,
Betrayed by the girl in the black velvet band;
And still to this day, you don’t understand;
Blood stained the soil of Australia.
Koori and white, old Australia and new,
Brothers and sisters of every hue,
The future is ours: Take the wealth from the few!
And raise the Red Flag in Australia!
Let it quicken your heartbeat; the road’s at your own feet;
Travel it lightly and travel it well.
And don’t speak of success or christen it progress
Till the swaggies can all waltz Matilda as well.
And don’t speak of success or christen it progress
Till the swaggies can all waltz Matilda as well.