Whoops made a mistake at the start of the vid. I was supposed to say 1896 .... not 1986. Sorry about that ... brain did a backlip. This is a series of videos I will be doing each month going into the details of specific characters in our Australian history as well as reccomending resources to learn more To learn more about our Swagman history here are some resources (please note these are amazon affiliate links and I get a small commission if you purchase a product) The Swiss Swagman: amzn.to/3PbsDcC A man called possum: amzn.to/4gNNsGC The Poems of Henry Lawson: amzn.to/4fvwpbE Poems of Banjo Patterson: amzn.to/3DpukRc The Shiralee Movie: amzn.to/3VRHjBq
My uncle, being a historical nut, knew of an unmarked Swaggie's grave. He gathered some locals and revamped the site, giving the Swaggie a proper gravesite with a headstone marked "Unknown Swagman." He did this some 30 odd years ago near an old school site next to a small creek. The whole area was dotted with historical sites, and my Uncle had uncovered many interesting things. Fascinating stuff, and Im very proud that my Uncle took the time to honour the Swagman.
That's a was good thing for your uncle to do! I love that .. give a bit of honour to the unkown swagmans last resting spot. I remember reading a book called the lonley graves of the gippsland gold fields. And it was a similar thing, just a record of marked graves out in remote places in the bush .. and who had been buried there and why.
Happy New Years Mate. Looking forward to all the adventures you take us along on this year as I keep going on mine. I know nothing at all about these tough old timers but the isolation and rough lifestyle is definitely something I love. They really lived a life of simplicity, almost free spirited never belonging anywhere but also been apart of everywhere. I've loved watching you bring it all to life.
@TheBeardedBushranger + Your so welcome mate and thank you I definitely am looking forward to getting back into it. Just hope my new tent is actually waterproof lol,
My grandmother knew the little girl pictured in Tom Robert's famous painting , Shearing the rams , which was done up Holbrook way. My grandfather grew up on a farm near Leneva and often did work around the district. He used to shear sheep with the blades and I remember him telling me how he would sleep on a bed tick in the shearer's quarters/huts, which were very basic shelter. The bed tick was basically a sack stuffed with grass to dull the hardness of the floor/ground. My grandmother remembered the swagmen coming though during the depression. The deal was they they did some work for a feed, chop wood and so on. Some of them came to be well known as " Sundowners", these ones would show up at sundown, when it was too late to do any work, and still expect the kindness of a feed, and weren't looked on so kindly. I have spent a lot of time sleeping in a swag. The best bedroom in the world! Looking up at the majestic stars. As a teenager in the early 80's I bought some canvas and hand sewed it in to a waterproof bed wrap that I used for years, in the Snowy Mountains when I was droving cattle to the high plains and mustering them, and on Northern Territory cattle stations I worked on where it was used for months on end - magic during the dry season because it would never rain during the night. Pretty rugged up there with mosquitos but a spray of aeroguard would get you off to sleep. No fancy mosquito nets then. Up at dawn. Still have it and still love sleeping in the swag. Still use it inside my tent, comfortable as, with just some foam and some woolen blankets, warm as toast when it's cold. The canvas is a great insulator and I sewed on a flap at the head end for rainy nights. The blankets are the old grey/blue woolen ones, must have been made in the 50's and in some quarters swags were called "Blueys" on account of them being rolled up blue/grey woolen blankets. Modern swags are like luxury hotels in comparison, and I have to I admit I have one plus a stretcher, a dome swag, and one for my daughter, that we have been camping in. Be a bit hard to carry all that on your back! There are some books I know of that you may be interested in. "Skills of The Australian Bushman", by Ron Edwards, he wrote one or two other books too, and "The Bushman's Handcrafts" by R.M. Williams, yes, that R.M.Williams. Both of these books document the skills and crafts that bushmen used to make do and to get by, most of it very clever. Roaming around the wonderland of Australia is fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
Loved reading this one 👍 Your RM brand is world renowned. I’m in the UK and just before Christmas some guy comes up to me and asks me whilst pointing to my feet ‘Are they RM’s?’ which they were obviously 😂😂 but now I will track down that book you mentioned 👍
Thank you very much for sharing that bit of history! Some great little points and information in there, like the calling swaggies blues. I was aware of the sundowner name as well. Sounds like you have had some great time out bush in your makeshift swag! My favourite swag to use is my home made oil skin cloth wrapped up with a woolen blanket. I've taken that on a few adventures and it's much lighter then the modern day swags you see today.
Coming from Central Australia I learnt a lot of tricks as a kid from some of the left over real bushies at the time here and from back then old traditional elders in which I learnt all the tricks of bush Tucker. Since then have had an obsession of the Australian bush man and Bushranger since I was a kid. I guess it is out of so much respect for those who lived like this especially 100 to 150 years ago. I love your channel and the efforts and research you do for your videos 👍! You do a great job.
Thanks for that mate! Yeah it really is interesting history with a lot to learn. I think when you appreciate how bloody harsh and unforgiving the Australian landscape is, you really appreciate those fellas who survived it with minimal gear back in the day.
My pop was a swaggy sheep shearer for 3 months of the year up in the central goldfields when he was much younger (and alive) While not a swaggy in the traditional sense he would often camp out in other farmers shearing sheds while working but he was never really far from home. Another awesome vid, Luke. Love ya work, mate.
Yeah that is cool to have that heritage in your family. My pa was a sheep drover down in warnambool during the 1950's. I'd love to do more on the droving history of Australia because of that
@TheBeardedBushranger I hear ya. I love hearing old stories from my uncle's. They're all up maryborough, carisbrook and Ballarat way and are all shearers and farriers and truck drivers. They have some absolute yarns
A farmer once lent me the book on old possum. He said that my life at the time reminds him of possum. After reading of this wonderful man's life, l returned the book and said," I've never been that hungry that I've had to eat fox"!
Loved this one Luke. I’m not sure if it’s fully related but it’s definitely a fascination I found in Aussie folklore of a similar time. I was at the Tibooburra Hotel in outback NSW the first time I heard the song ‘Close as a whisper (The Gift) sang by Lee Kernaghan. I realised listening to it playing that it was about the song Waltzing Matilda so when I made it across to the other side of Australia in Perth I tracked down the song and the lyrics. This made me discover another lyric in the song going ‘Some shear is headin' south Sang me to Jackie Howe, First time he ever shaved a hundred in a day. I had no idea what this phrase meant and it took me almost a year before I found out about the legend of John Robert Howe (aka Jackie Howe) the Australian Sheep Shearing legend of the 1920s who held the record for shearing the most sheep in a day. From there I kept looking up Aussie Legend after Aussie Legend. Fortunately your Country singers make it easier as they often sing about them. I even drove all the way out to the Red Dog Memorial Statue, in Dampier WA just to get my photo taken with the dog statue as I’m a total dog lover and loved this bit of Aussie legend also 👍 I rambled on a bit then sorry, just like a swagman I guess 😂😂 One thing I did love about your country was all the stories I got to hear about when travelling around the outback, stories took on a whole life of their own there.
Haha mate that is a great bit of history there. This is why I love the comment sections because I can learn a bunch of stuff as well! I'll be looking into Jackie howe now! Have you ever heard of the dog on a tucker box?
I have mate, but funnily enough because we diverted through Gundagai because we wanted to tick it off due to the Slim Dusty song The Road to Gundagai and whilst we were there we found out about the Dog on the Tucker box from a trucker. My wife was dying to sit behind the wheel of one of these big road trains you have and this beautiful rig pulled in so through the good lady we got talking and he told us. People are always friendly in your Outback 👍 Incidentally you should have seen the smile on my wife’s face when she first got to sit behind the wheel of that rig and the driver asked her if she wanted to honk the horn on the rig. 😂😂 kid in a candy store moment 😂😂
Happy 2125... whoopsie, 2025. _(it was totally hilarious inside my head when I read your pinned comment)._ I cannot wait to see your amazing content this coming year.
Yeah they wrote about them a lot! There was a fair bit for me to chose from in the opening monolouge. Unforetunatly I accidently said 1986 and not 1886 haha
By the 1890's many of them were transporting by bicycle across long distances for work- explained in 'Bicycle and the Bush' by Jim Fitzpatrick. Here in WA, in the Goldfields, was the largest network of bicycle tracks in the world at that time!
Yeah mate for sure, I'd actually love to get my hands on an old bike and do a bicycle trip (or a wheelbarrow trip accross the outback, which would often be used to cart things to the gold fields)
From my grandmother talking about her mothers dinner encounter with captain thunderbolt at their home in the Barrington tops NSW when he arrived at their home after a feed. And upon leaving without being questioned she found a 5 pound note under the table cloth. So my grandmother said he was sort of a peoples bush ranger. 🇦🇺🦘
i have a small doll type thing that was my late grandads, it has a plinth or something with the words 'once a jolly swagman' it is in the attic with some of his other stuff. This is in england. I have distant relatives in oz who emigrated back in the 60's and i think my grandma may have brought it back from a visit to Australia early in the 70's when she visited those who emigrated.
@@TheBeardedBushranger I didn't have any knowledge they are all dead now and I had no idea what a swagman was until i saw this video. Now I know and the next time i go in the attic i will dig him out.
In the early 1900s, swag became slang for stolen goods. This is likely because many thieves would boast about their "swag" after a successful heist. The word "swag" is also short for "swagger." Swagger is a term that has been around for centuries, and it originally referred to the way someone carried themselves. I even hear that Jay-Z, yes the controversial American rap icon, 'invented' the word, and or that it was created by the American Hip-Hop culture. Some even suggest the word may have Scandinavian origins, with the earliest known use of the word in the English language dating back to 1303. The word may come from the Scandinavian word svagga, which means "to rock unsteadily or lurch". Thus far, there is only ONE solid conclusion -->> The word swag has multiple origins and has had many meanings over time. Cheers Mate!
Nice mate. I’m sure it’s completely seperate, but I often wonder just how close swagmen are to the American hobo jumping trains. Similar kit for the most part. But I guess at least some swagmen were cattle workers etc and contributed to society
Very similar culture to what I hear. If I am correct a Hobo was a traveling worker in the states right? And a bum was basically someone who travelled on the trains but didn't work. So I'd say the hobo is the closest thing the states have to the swagman culture.
We definitely had our fair share of swaggers in NZ back the day too, characters like Russian Jack or even John A. Lee. They are an interesting bunch though I couldn’t find many sources on them over these ways.
Yeah I know haha I put a little disclaimer in my pinned comment that I accidently said 1986 instead of 1886. Just a result of multiple takes doing that walking intro and I just messed up and overlooked that. Whoops
I am sure I saw it somewhere that it was a European tradition that we borrowed from German immigrants which would explain the similarities between America and Australia.
Whoops made a mistake at the start of the vid. I was supposed to say 1896 .... not 1986. Sorry about that ... brain did a backlip.
This is a series of videos I will be doing each month going into the details of specific characters in our Australian history as well as reccomending resources to learn more
To learn more about our Swagman history here are some resources (please note these are amazon affiliate links and I get a small commission if you purchase a product)
The Swiss Swagman:
amzn.to/3PbsDcC
A man called possum:
amzn.to/4gNNsGC
The Poems of Henry Lawson:
amzn.to/4fvwpbE
Poems of Banjo Patterson:
amzn.to/3DpukRc
The Shiralee Movie:
amzn.to/3VRHjBq
Brain Backflip?🤔🤨 Hmm, Oh I get it, Cerebral Gymnastics
My uncle, being a historical nut, knew of an unmarked Swaggie's grave. He gathered some locals and revamped the site, giving the Swaggie a proper gravesite with a headstone marked "Unknown Swagman." He did this some 30 odd years ago near an old school site next to a small creek. The whole area was dotted with historical sites, and my Uncle had uncovered many interesting things. Fascinating stuff, and Im very proud that my Uncle took the time to honour the Swagman.
That's a was good thing for your uncle to do! I love that .. give a bit of honour to the unkown swagmans last resting spot.
I remember reading a book called the lonley graves of the gippsland gold fields. And it was a similar thing, just a record of marked graves out in remote places in the bush .. and who had been buried there and why.
That is fantastic. There's an undocumented graveyard near my nans house in Paddy's ranges I need to check out soon.
Thanks!
That is very generous of you. Thank you very much!
Thanks digger. I have a copy of Robert Henderson Croll's 'Along the Track'. I've read, and re-read it many times. He's a smooth talkin' trekker. 🙃👍
Thanks for that mate. I will have a read.
Happy New Years Mate. Looking forward to all the adventures you take us along on this year as I keep going on mine.
I know nothing at all about these tough old timers but the isolation and rough lifestyle is definitely something I love.
They really lived a life of simplicity, almost free spirited never belonging anywhere but also been apart of everywhere.
I've loved watching you bring it all to life.
Cheers mate, thanks heaps for watching the videos and enjoy your own adventures.
@TheBeardedBushranger + Your so welcome mate and thank you I definitely am looking forward to getting back into it.
Just hope my new tent is actually waterproof lol,
My grandmother knew the little girl pictured in Tom Robert's famous painting , Shearing the rams , which was done up Holbrook way.
My grandfather grew up on a farm near Leneva and often did work around the district. He used to shear sheep with the blades and I remember him telling me how he would sleep on a bed tick in the shearer's quarters/huts, which were very basic shelter. The bed tick was basically a sack stuffed with grass to dull the hardness of the floor/ground.
My grandmother remembered the swagmen coming though during the depression.
The deal was they they did some work for a feed, chop wood and so on.
Some of them came to be well known as " Sundowners", these ones would show up at sundown, when it was too late to do any work, and still expect the kindness of a feed, and weren't looked on so kindly.
I have spent a lot of time sleeping in a swag. The best bedroom in the world! Looking up at the majestic stars.
As a teenager in the early 80's I bought some canvas and hand sewed it in to a waterproof bed wrap that I used for years, in the Snowy Mountains when I was droving cattle to the high plains and mustering them, and on Northern Territory cattle stations I worked on where it was used for months on end - magic during the dry season because it would never rain during the night. Pretty rugged up there with mosquitos but a spray of aeroguard would get you off to sleep. No fancy mosquito nets then. Up at dawn.
Still have it and still love sleeping in the swag. Still use it inside my tent, comfortable as, with just some foam and some woolen blankets, warm as toast when it's cold. The canvas is a great insulator and I sewed on a flap at the head end for rainy nights. The blankets are the old grey/blue woolen ones, must have been made in the 50's and in some quarters swags were called "Blueys" on account of them being rolled up blue/grey woolen blankets.
Modern swags are like luxury hotels in comparison, and I have to I admit I have one plus a stretcher, a dome swag, and one for my daughter, that we have been camping in.
Be a bit hard to carry all that on your back!
There are some books I know of that you may be interested in.
"Skills of The Australian Bushman", by Ron Edwards, he wrote one or two other books too,
and
"The Bushman's Handcrafts" by R.M. Williams, yes, that R.M.Williams.
Both of these books document the skills and crafts that bushmen used to make do and to get by, most of it very clever.
Roaming around the wonderland of Australia is fantastic.
Thank you for sharing.
Loved reading this one 👍 Your RM brand is world renowned. I’m in the UK and just before Christmas some guy comes up to me and asks me whilst pointing to my feet ‘Are they RM’s?’ which they were obviously 😂😂 but now I will track down that book you mentioned 👍
Thank you very much for sharing that bit of history! Some great little points and information in there, like the calling swaggies blues.
I was aware of the sundowner name as well.
Sounds like you have had some great time out bush in your makeshift swag! My favourite swag to use is my home made oil skin cloth wrapped up with a woolen blanket. I've taken that on a few adventures and it's much lighter then the modern day swags you see today.
@@craig2795 In his book there are detailed instructions on how to make his boots!
Coming from Central Australia I learnt a lot of tricks as a kid from some of the left over real bushies at the time here and from back then old traditional elders in which I learnt all the tricks of bush Tucker. Since then have had an obsession of the Australian bush man and Bushranger since I was a kid. I guess it is out of so much respect for those who lived like this especially 100 to 150 years ago.
I love your channel and the efforts and research you do for your videos 👍! You do a great job.
Thanks for that mate! Yeah it really is interesting history with a lot to learn. I think when you appreciate how bloody harsh and unforgiving the Australian landscape is, you really appreciate those fellas who survived it with minimal gear back in the day.
My pop was a swaggy sheep shearer for 3 months of the year up in the central goldfields when he was much younger (and alive)
While not a swaggy in the traditional sense he would often camp out in other farmers shearing sheds while working but he was never really far from home.
Another awesome vid, Luke. Love ya work, mate.
Yeah that is cool to have that heritage in your family. My pa was a sheep drover down in warnambool during the 1950's. I'd love to do more on the droving history of Australia because of that
@TheBeardedBushranger I hear ya. I love hearing old stories from my uncle's. They're all up maryborough, carisbrook and Ballarat way and are all shearers and farriers and truck drivers. They have some absolute yarns
Good stuff mate very enjoyable
Cheers mate.
A farmer once lent me the book on old possum. He said that my life at the time reminds him of possum. After reading of this wonderful man's life, l returned the book and said," I've never been that hungry that I've had to eat fox"!
haha I guess its a bit of compliment being compared to possum!
@TheBeardedBushranger Yeah well...better possum I suppose than his mate Flies!😄😄👍
Fantastic video man!!
Thanks mate!
You are my resource Luke, great vids mate.
Cheers mate.
“favourite source”? that would be you mate! 👍🏼✌🏼🖖🏼
Cheers mate.
Well done love your research and videos. Puts a reality to Waltzing Matilda. Grabbing that jumbuck wiyh glee. Thankyouxx
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed.
Thanks Luke great video.
Cheers thanks for watching.
You are my favourite resource on the history of the Swagman! Cheers Andy Poverty Prospecting Australia 🇦🇺 👍 😊
Haha thanks Andy!
"I can jump puddles", by Allan Marshall has a chapter or two about swagmen.
Awesome, thanks for that.
Loved this one Luke. I’m not sure if it’s fully related but it’s definitely a fascination I found in Aussie folklore of a similar time. I was at the Tibooburra Hotel in outback NSW the first time I heard the song ‘Close as a whisper (The Gift) sang by Lee Kernaghan. I realised listening to it playing that it was about the song Waltzing Matilda so when I made it across to the other side of Australia in Perth I tracked down the song and the lyrics. This made me discover another lyric in the song going
‘Some shear is headin' south
Sang me to Jackie Howe,
First time he ever shaved a hundred in a day.
I had no idea what this phrase meant and it took me almost a year before I found out about the legend of John Robert Howe (aka Jackie Howe) the Australian Sheep Shearing legend of the 1920s who held the record for shearing the most sheep in a day. From there I kept looking up Aussie Legend after Aussie Legend. Fortunately your Country singers make it easier as they often sing about them.
I even drove all the way out to the Red Dog Memorial Statue, in Dampier WA just to get my photo taken with the dog statue as I’m a total dog lover and loved this bit of Aussie legend also 👍
I rambled on a bit then sorry, just like a swagman I guess 😂😂
One thing I did love about your country was all the stories I got to hear about when travelling around the outback, stories took on a whole life of their own there.
Haha mate that is a great bit of history there. This is why I love the comment sections because I can learn a bunch of stuff as well! I'll be looking into Jackie howe now!
Have you ever heard of the dog on a tucker box?
I have mate, but funnily enough because we diverted through Gundagai because we wanted to tick it off due to the Slim Dusty song The Road to Gundagai and whilst we were there we found out about the Dog on the Tucker box from a trucker. My wife was dying to sit behind the wheel of one of these big road trains you have and this beautiful rig pulled in so through the good lady we got talking and he told us. People are always friendly in your Outback 👍
Incidentally you should have seen the smile on my wife’s face when she first got to sit behind the wheel of that rig and the driver asked her if she wanted to honk the horn on the rig. 😂😂 kid in a candy store moment 😂😂
In the day the blue singlets were called "Jackie Howes".
These days they are called "Wife Beaters"......
As you were walking down the road talking the Shiralee came to mind before you mentioned it. Its a great simple aussie movie.
Yeah great movie. Loved it. Another classic is 'my fortunate life'
Happy 2125... whoopsie, 2025.
_(it was totally hilarious inside my head when I read your pinned comment)._
I cannot wait to see your amazing content this coming year.
haha can't believe I missed that!
Thanks for watching, plenty to come this year.
When working people have to live in their vehicles a resurgence of the Swagman is just around the corner imo.
You might be right there mate.
Hi Luke I have the complete works of both Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson and there are lots of short stories and poems about Swaggies.
Yeah they wrote about them a lot! There was a fair bit for me to chose from in the opening monolouge. Unforetunatly I accidently said 1986 and not 1886 haha
By the 1890's many of them were transporting by bicycle across long distances for work- explained in 'Bicycle and the Bush' by Jim Fitzpatrick. Here in WA, in the Goldfields, was the largest network of bicycle tracks in the world at that time!
Yeah mate for sure, I'd actually love to get my hands on an old bike and do a bicycle trip (or a wheelbarrow trip accross the outback, which would often be used to cart things to the gold fields)
From my grandmother talking about her mothers dinner encounter with captain thunderbolt at their home in the Barrington tops NSW when he arrived at their home after a feed. And upon leaving without being questioned she found a 5 pound note under the table cloth. So my grandmother said he was sort of a peoples bush ranger. 🇦🇺🦘
haha great story! Yeah I have good stuff about ol thunderbolt in the history books.
Awesome Luke!😝👊 cheers from New Zealand 🌏🌏🌏🥝🥝🥝🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🌿🌿🌿🍺🍻🍺🍺
i have a small doll type thing that was my late grandads, it has a plinth or something with the words 'once a jolly swagman' it is in the attic with some of his other stuff. This is in england. I have distant relatives in oz who emigrated back in the 60's and i think my grandma may have brought it back from a visit to Australia early in the 70's when she visited those who emigrated.
That sounds great! I love how folks from overseas have some knowledge of our history as well.
@@TheBeardedBushranger I didn't have any knowledge they are all dead now and I had no idea what a swagman was until i saw this video. Now I know and the next time i go in the attic i will dig him out.
It was Mulga Bill from eaglehawk, who started the cycling craze
Thanks for taht.
Don't forget the swagger. That's a sidestep walk.😅😅😊😊 In central Illinois at least. I think the swag man had it. Billy Tin, blanket, youth.
In the early 1900s, swag became slang for stolen goods.
This is likely because many thieves would boast about their "swag" after a successful heist.
The word "swag" is also short for "swagger."
Swagger is a term that has been around for centuries, and it originally referred to the way someone carried themselves.
I even hear that Jay-Z, yes the controversial American rap icon, 'invented' the word, and or that it was created by the American Hip-Hop culture.
Some even suggest the word may have Scandinavian origins, with the earliest known use of the word in the English language dating back to 1303.
The word may come from the Scandinavian word svagga, which means "to rock unsteadily or lurch".
Thus far, there is only ONE solid conclusion -->> The word swag has multiple origins and has had many meanings over time.
Cheers Mate!
Aint that true. Gotta say the old swagmen had a bit of swag to them as well 😆
@@TheBeardedBushranger Haha, you had to. Walking around with THAT, had to improve one's personal style .
2:51 Isn't right there on that path in another video that you encountered a snake?
Yeah same path!
Interesting! Favourite source would have to be you I guess.
Haha cheers mate.
love watching this with a billie in hand, not the same one in the video tho..
😆
Just had some damper for breakfast! They must have been hardy men 🇦🇺 🇳🇿
With a bit of jam, damper goes great.
Nice mate. I’m sure it’s completely seperate, but I often wonder just how close swagmen are to the American hobo jumping trains. Similar kit for the most part. But I guess at least some swagmen were cattle workers etc and contributed to society
Very similar culture to what I hear. If I am correct a Hobo was a traveling worker in the states right? And a bum was basically someone who travelled on the trains but didn't work.
So I'd say the hobo is the closest thing the states have to the swagman culture.
@ I know about as much as you mate. But yes I assume they travelled the trains in search of work
Hey luke i cant seem find much on what happened in nz around that time what they called nz bush man
We definitely had our fair share of swaggers in NZ back the day too, characters like Russian Jack or even John A. Lee. They are an interesting bunch though I couldn’t find many sources on them over these ways.
@Digger_97 that's interesting 🤔 have good safe start to 2025
Yeah I'd love to learn more about NZ's history. I know there is quite a similar culture over there as well.
Twin Rivers was a good movie
Thanks for that, I'll check it out.
@TheBeardedBushranger you can find it on TH-cam movies I watched it last night
Yep, would have been a tough life.
1896 not 1986
The Swagman and His Mate
Henry Lawson, 1896
Yeah I know haha I put a little disclaimer in my pinned comment that I accidently said 1986 instead of 1886. Just a result of multiple takes doing that walking intro and I just messed up and overlooked that. Whoops
!!
Er... released when? 1986 seems a little fresh. Would 1896 be a bit closer to the mark? Keep up the great work and don't skimp on the suntan cream.
Haha whoops I got that wrong ... was meant to be 1896. Thanks for that .. might try and edit in some text to correc that.
@@TheBeardedBushranger lol, There's a very simple reason that I don't chew gum while walking......
There was a swagman with an American style horseshoe swag.
I hear the American swagmen were called hobos?
I am sure I saw it somewhere that it was a European tradition that we borrowed from German immigrants which would explain the similarities between America and Australia.
Yeah well it all has Europeon roots I'd say!