THERE are few poems in Australia that have the same emotional pull as A.B Banjo Paterson's Waltzing Matilda.

It is our unofficial national anthem.

You only have to be overseas to hear an Aussie hum or sing it and you immediately have a sense of home, a point of national connection. It is our song.

So much so that in the 1977 vote for a new national anthem, Waltzing Matilda came in second, with 1,918,206 votes, whereas Advance Australia Fair won with 2,940,854.

But as Matthew Richardson notes in his 2006 book Once a Jolly Swagman, The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda: "Some commentators suggested that Waltzing Matilda was most people's second choice, and that it would win a preferential ballot, such as members of parliament are selected by."

Even so, immortality isn't enough. Waltzing Matilda supposedly needs a change.

At least that's the opinion of composer Gavin Lockley.

On Australia Day, Lockley gave a debut performance of his new take on Banjo Paterson's original tune at a free concert in Sydney's Domain.

Was this necessary or desirable? Hardly.

What Lockley has done is tamper with one of the iconic statements about Australian bush life.

He has meddled with, some would say vandalised, a song that has endured intact all down the years.

It was written by Banjo Paterson at Dagworth Station in Queensland in 1887 and published in 1903.

Just imagine for a moment if willy-nilly we decided to alter other works of art.

The outcry would be prolonged and fierce if we added a couple more figures to Tom Robert's famous painting Shearing the Rams for example.

What about putting a few crashing cymbals in Rolf Harris' Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport? Sacrilege I hear you say.

What Lockley has failed to understand, if not ignore, is that Waltzing Matilda, is, as it originally stands, universally acceptable.

Or as Richardson says: "It will remain our national folk song only as long as no section of the community attempts to appropriate Waltzing Matilda as its own, as long as nobody attempts to capture and shape its history according to their own sectional interests."

Not so. According to Lockley, Waltzing Matilda needs a facelift. Why? Speaking before he performed the song yesterday, he said:

"The last verse is really a sad story. It is about a misunderstood man making a bad decision and losing his life as a consequence, so it has always stuck me as inappropriate to have everyone belt out the rousing chorus after that.

"My version is about exploring those emotions to find a new take on the ending. I wanted to leave people with the tragedy of it rather than, 'let's celebrate the dead guy'."

Banjo would be turning in his grave and he would have plenty to say about Lockley's fiddling with his poem.

The point is that Paterson wrote the poem in response to what he overheard.

He wasn't exploring emotions but rather trying to capture a true bush event.

When staying at Dagworth Station, Paterson overheard overseer Jack Carter telling station owner Bob Macpherson he had seen a swagman, "waltzing matilda" down by the Combo waterhole.

In 1926, Macpherson recalled how Paterson had become excited by the words "waltzing matilda" and that he wrote the poem there and then.

Legend has it that there is further intrigue.

Paterson supposedly wrote the poem with the help of Bob Macpherson's sister, Christina, with whom it is suspected he was engaged in an affair.

But leaving aside the stories that swirl around the song's creation, it is undeniably an integral part of Australian folklore.

Banjo's Waltzing Matilda has been "owned" by farmers and bush workers as their hymn to nationhood.

Even so, there is something more worrying still about Lockley's re-jigging of the original verse.

If Lockley's version is accepted, then does this mean that other classic poems will come in for a rewrite because someone thinks it is time for a change?

Will Lawson's poignant, To an Old Mate or the tragic, Scots of the Riverina, not to mention, Banjo's The Man from Snowy River or Clancy of the Overflow, also come in for a makeover?

These poems, and many like them, have echoed across the lonely plains and down the wild bush gullies for generations.

Lockley and those of similar mind should pick up their swag and leave well alone.

  • Christopher Bantick is a social commentator and regular contributor to The Weekly Times.