Peter Dawson (bass-baritone)
Videos
Page
Peter Smith Dawson was an Australian bass-baritone and songwriter in the 1920s and 1930s, when he was possibly the most popular singer of that era. He said that at the time the gramophone was "an instrument of torture", excruciating for the recording artist, who needed "lungs of leather" to make an impression on the wax cylinders, which captured nothing but the very loudest noises.
Peter Dawson (bass-baritone)
Peter Dawson singing with New South Wales police in the 1930s
Cover of the program for Dawson's 1931 concert in Adelaide with pianist Mark Hambourg
Waltzing Matilda
Videos
Page
"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".
Original manuscript, transcribed by Christina Macpherson, c. 1895
Fortified temporary shearing shed at Dagworth Station following the 1894 arson of the main shed. The three troopers at left are thought to be those referred to in "Waltzing Matilda", while the squatter was Bob Macpherson, fourth from right.
Photograph of a swagman, c. 1901, holding a billy and carrying a swag on his back
Painting of a swagman camped by a billabong, Gordon Coutts, 1889, Art Gallery of New South Wales