Combo Conservation Park One

Text from the sign near the waterhole. I did not write this. 😁

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda
Inspired in the outback

Banjo Paterson was just one of many to come this way, but he recorded something of his visit that remains with us today. A catchy, well-known tune is born, inspired by colourful outback characters, larrikins and gentry alike.

Penned in this landscape.

The outback landscape drew many a poem and some fine prose from Paterson's pen. Perhaps as a visitor with a love of the outback and as a solicitor and poet, Banjo saw events with a clarity reflected in the simplicity of the ballad of Waltzing Matilda.

Swagmen were story keepers and kept the bush telegraph alive. They carried newspapers and magazines that were old news to the city, but news of the day in the outback. Ballads circulated with shearers on their annual 'run' of sheds. Wool carters and drovers listened eagerly for reports of rain on recently travelled tracks,

In 1895, grazier Bob Macpherson managed the family property Dagworth Station named like many other stations after a racehorse. Bob's sister Christina was a talented musician. Banjo heard her play a "catchy, whimsical, haunting tune that deserved words to keep it alive". His words continue to capture the hearts of Australians today.

An early Aboriginal camp and popular meeting place for European settlers thereafter, Combo Waterhole is immersed in a history of music and sharing of talents, laced with lively discussion and stories.

Language, and song, like everything in the outback, is full of colour. Words and terms are drawn from as many countries as the characters who have lived here. Waltzing Matilda, of Germanic origin, came to mean living on the road, carrying a swag.

Sheep were favoured over cattle on Dagworth from 1880's to the 1960's. Thousands were grazed in many outback areas in the good years.

A ghost may be heard.

Sit for a while, flick fles away and listen for the ghosts of those who sat here before you as they did. Hear the birdcalls, raucous and sweet, the chatter of family and friends, the buzz of files and imagine the distant sound of a jingling harness or a horse snorting away a fly.Read more