He came in from Melbourne on a Pioneer
Adelaide morning, warm and clear
And a past that wasn't quite

Within the law

And he opened yet another ten dollar room

To a broken blind and a rising gloom
And a threadbare cotton carpet
On the floor


And the muzak piping through the corridor
Played that song he heard before

It went :-

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

A suitcase held with rope and twine
Cleaner's shirt and an open mind
A trail of debts

To mark where he had been
A million miles of racetracks
And torn tickets on the ground

And his only son cut down in Phnom Penh green

Police car crawled down Gouger street

As he looked for some place cheap to eat
It was just another
Curb's eye interview


With a warrant out in Adelaide
For a bad decision that he once made

An instinct took his tongue
And pulled him through


So he left his hotel room that night
In time to make a midnight flight
With an overloaded truckie

Going east

And the line ran round inside his head

Was it something that his best friend said
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"


The billabong's just a grubby pond
That's busy washing ore
The squatter drives a thoroughbred steel

And if he runs forever
Will his life be all in vain?
At least that's how it makes him feel


And the truckie pushed a cassette in
As they rumbled through the Grampians

It played Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Waltzing Matilda,

Waltzing Matilda,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?


Waltzing Matilda,
Waltzing Matilda,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?


And the truckie pushed a cassette in
As they rumbled through the Grampians

It played Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?