I can not believe you guys got the answers so quickly! It’s no point holding this over until everyone gets a chance to answer seeing as the correct answers have already been given (and it’s not a subjective thing like Ree’s photo naming, which I think I should have won more than I did, especially the one with the camera for a prize).
The Answers are:
Question 1. The Swaggie was never actually named, however as a joke a lot of us call him Andy because of the the line "And he sang, as he watched and he waited til his billy boiled", which many of us sing as "Andy sang as he watched…"
Question 2. While the reference to the shearers’ dispute is correct, it not the link to the German tradesman (or more correctly ‘Journeymen’) that I was looking for. Yes in fact it refers to the term (and the practice) of ‘Auf der Walz‘ where tradesmen, usually carpenters but also masons, upon completing their apprenticeship don a specific uniform and spend the next three years and one day traveling and learning more about the trade. References to the Germans calling their coats Matilda are new to me but are probably true, however the swag has also been called a Mathilda. Here’s another link about the Walz if you want to read even more crap about it.
For those of you too busy, too lazy, or too disinterested to follow the links (and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being any of them), here’s a few photos to provide CliffsNotes…
A German Tradesman and an Aussie Swagman (Ithink from tourist park)
A group of Walzers
and a group of Swaggies.
Yeah yeah that’s fine, but who won!!
Ok the winners:
Katie got the name right (I’m beginning to suspect she has some Aussie blood in her), and as that one was almost impossible to find through an internet search, she gets the Fridge magnets. What that doesn’t make any sense at all?
Mary got the Auf der Walz question correct and even pasted the explanation (although I don’t know where she got it) so she gets the tea towel.
And finally, because Pamela gave a pretty acceptable answer, even though it wasn’t the right one (and an even better sob story about her mother), she gets a tea towel too.
So send me your mailing address if you want your prize, Katie I’ve already got yours so you don’t need to.
Filed under: Competitions |
The Original Dingo 
I’m thinkin’ Katie might have a little Aussie blood running through her veins, too! Because I tried, and I tried, and I googled and askedabout.com, and everything, and I didn’t find no “Andy!”
Who am I kidding? I’m just saying that because I’m jealous.
Congratulations Katie and Mary!
yeah!! I’ll never trust Google again! congrats!!
Basically what I’m finding through your contests, Willowtree, is that I don’t know crap.
Thank you, and good night.
Sometimes persistence pays off — even if I’m wrong.
He has God’s name ???
Andy Walks With me, Andy he talks with me. Andy tells me I am His Own.
We used to sing that when I was a kid at church.
I later thought it was about the Sheriff of Mayberry.
Hey, I could have had my own contest.. What is God’s name???
Here is where I got the Samuel Hoff-whatever-I-said.
“Waltzing Matilda” is probably based on the following story:
In Queensland in 1891 the Great Shearers’ Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier Samuel Griffith called in the military.
In September 1894, on a station called Dagworth (north of Winton), some shearers were again on strike. It turned violent with the strikers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at the Dagworth Homestead, killing dozens of sheep.
The owner of Dagworth Homestead and three policemen gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister – also called Samuel “French(y)” Hoffmeister. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the Combo Waterhole.
Bob Macpherson (the brother of Christina) and Paterson are said to have taken rides together at Dagworth. Here they may have passed the Combo Waterhole, where Bob may have told this story to Paterson.
I won a tea towel. I won a tea towel….
Mary – That is quite impressive (I mean it), but I was more interested in how you figured out the carpenter thing.
Ree – Unlike me, who knows nothing but crap.
wt,did you go Auf de walz?
Thank you!
I would love to be an Australian! 🙂
I did read where the swags were called Matilda as well..
So many choices! 🙂
Congratulations to Mary and Pamela !
This was a most interesting and educational game! Thank you again!
Woo-hoo!! More history and contests, please.
Same place. Googled Waltzing Matilda and went to the wikipedia link.
Katie- I thought you were Australian when I heard your audio blog that time.
ohh… lol… My accent… I call it Euro – trash so as not to offend any one country. My accent is a mix of many countries and a few States. 🙂
Nobody except my cousin in Scotland will claim me.
Congratulations to your winners. I will remain a loser, but I don’t drink tea very much so I’d have no use for a tea towel anyway and magnets cause problems with the plate in my head.
I’m whining on the inside
I cannot believe that not only did you have a contest where I don’t even have a sporting chance, but you hosted it while I was far, far away.
I know you, you planned it that way. Somehow that “tin hat” connection “told” you I was gone….:/.