Waltzing Matilda

Banjo Paterson (text)

Freya Blackwood (illus)

Scholastic Press, Australia: 2006

ISBN: 1865048151

Genres: Australian history, poetry, picture book

Issues: economic depression, social change

Just another illustrated edition of a famous Australian poem? Not quite. In an inspired move, Freya Blackwood has researched the social and historical context that was the backdrop for Paterson's famous song - the rise of the shearer's union and the battle between the farmers (squatters) and shearers over wages and conditions.

Carefully selected newspaper extracts are shown on every second double-page spread - primary historical sources showing the shearer's strikes, the attempts to bring in non-union labour, the appointment of police, and issues of police corruption and incompetence. The illustrations, in warm earth tones, appear to simply illustrate the events of the poem. Closer inspection, however, shows the reader how cleverly Blackwood has used her research to inform her work. Small insets show shearers protesting, coaches being robbed by men whose anger and desperation has driven them to crime, and documented events of the time, such as the burning down of a woodshed. The layers of visual information and the provision of historical context through newspaper references mean that the reader is taken well beyond the familiar text into the world Paterson knew well - a time of social change and economic crisis. Readers will never think of the ‘jolly swagman' in quite the same way again.

Highly recommended.