Once a jolly swagman
Camped by a billabong
Under the shade
Of a coolabah tree

Uncle Cliff taught us the song about the swaggie and his Matilda pack when he joined us at the camp on the Timbarra River in East Gippsland. It was 1939 and I was six years old. We learnt the chorus of Waltzing Matilda first and were promised the rest at bedtime. How lucky were we to have a song for a bedside story!