"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (grazier), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The song, published in 1903, is quite different from the original song, written in 1895. The original lyrics were composed in 1895 by Australian poet, Banjo Paterson, to suit a tune played by Christina Macpherson. In 1903, Marie Cowan changed some of the lyrics, wrote a completely new variation of the tune and published it in sheet music as an advertising jingle for Billy tea. This is the version of "Waltzing Matilda" that we sing today. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that it has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, in the Queensland outback, where Paterson wrote the lyrics. In 2012, to remind Australians of the song's significance, Winton organised the inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day to be held on 6 April, wrongly thought at the time to be the anniversary of its first performance. The song was first recorded in 1926 as performed by John Collinson and Russell Callow. In 2008, this recording of "Waltzing Matilda" was added to the Sounds of Australia registry in the National Film and Sound Archive, which says that there are more recordings of "Waltzing Matilda" than any other Australian song. History Writing of the song The Australian poet Banjo Paterson wrote the words to "Waltzing Matilda" over a period of two or three weeks in August 1895 at a number of locations. There are credible accounts of the song being written in Winton and at Dagworth Station, a sheep station 130 km north west of Winton in Central West Queensland, owned by the Macpherson family. Paterson and others have left accounts of the song being written at Dick's Creek, between