Waltzing Matilda was written by A.B. ('Banjo') Paterson in 1896, at Winton, Queensland. One day while visiting Mr Robert McPherson a large sheep station owner they saw an old swagman trying to catch a sheep for his tuckerbox. McPherson stopped the buggy, exclaiming, 'He's after a jumbuck!' And jumping down he chased the swaggie away. (Jumbuck was Aboriginal phrase for sheep).
This caught Paterson's imagination and he softly spoke the lines of 'Waltzing Matilda'. Accompanying Paterson was Miss Christina McPherson who was intrigued with the words and told the poet that she had heard a brass band playing a tune that she though would suit them. When they reached Miss Riley's home Paterson and Miss McPherson sat down at the harmonium and adapted the tune to the words. The tune is an old Rochester (Kent) marching air of the Marlborough Wars.
Incidentally, as a baby, Christina McPherson (1864-1936), figured in the capture of Mad Dan Morgan. When that bushranger held up the McPherson homestead at Peechelba, Victoria (30km south-west of Corowa), he ordered food to be brought to him. Then he 'requested' Mrs McPherson to play the harmonium to him while he ate. As the baby, Christina, kept crying in the next room, he angrily told a nursemaid Alice Keenan to 'go out and keep that brat quiet'. She managed to escape and inform Mr Rutherford, the co-owner of the property and the police.