Billycan in my hand. Australian folk songs about food

    22 March 2025

    2025

    The unofficial Australian national song, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is about a swagman (an itinerant) stealing a sheep that has come to drink from the billabong at which the swaggie has set up camp for the night. From out of nowhere comes a squatter (the owner of the sheep) and three policemen who attempt to take the swaggie into custody. ‘You’ll never take me alive’ the swaggie says and jumps into the billabong and drowns.

    Swaggies and their food is a theme in many Australian folk songs as are alcohol, damper (an unleavened bread) alcohol, and tea.

    Read more.

    Share

    Big Mulch

    Paul van Reyk
    My first essay on food was in Year 10 - people seemed to like it. It took me 56 years to come back to it, so I have a lot of catching up to do. My focus is on Anglo-Saxon settler culinary ways in Australia, roughly from the first days of colonisation to the 1960s - 1970s. I particularly write about stuff that has not been written about before but is very much a part of the Anglo-Saxon Australian table. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I do writing.