When I was a young man I carried my pack   And I lived the free life of a rover   From the murrays green basin to the dusty outback   I waltzed my matilda all over   Then in nineteen fifteen my country said son   It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be   Done   So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun   And they sent me away to the war   And the band played waltzing matilda   As we sailed away from the quay   And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the   Cheers   We sailed off to gallipoli   How well I remember that terrible day   when the blood stained the sand and the water   And how in that hell that they called suvla bay   We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter   Johnny turk he was ready, he primed himself well   He showered us with bullets, he rained us with   Shells   And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell   Nearly blew us right back to australia   But the band played waltzing matilda   As we stopped to bury our slain   And we buried ours and the turks buried theirs   Then it started all over again   Now those who were living did their best to survive   In that mad world of blood, death and fire   And for seven long weeks I kept myself alive   while the corpses around me piled higher   Then a big turkish shell knocked me arse over tit   And when I woke up in my hospital bed   And saw what it had done, christ I wished I was   Dead   Never knew there were worse things than dying   and no more I'll go waltzing matilda   to the green bushes so far and near   For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs   No more waltzing matilda for me   So they collected the cripples, the wounded and   Maimed   And they shipped us back home to australia   the legless, the armless, the blind and insane   Those proud wounded heroes of suvla   And as our ship pulled into circular quay   I looked at the place where me legs used to be   And thank christ there was nobody waiting for me   To grieve and to mourn and to pity   And the band played waltzing matilda   As they carried us down the gangway   But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared   and they turned all their faces away   And now every april I sit on my porch   And I watch the parade pass before me   i see my old comrades, how proudly they march   Reliving their dreams of past glory   i see the old men, all twisted and torn   The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war   And the young people ask me, what are they   Marching for?    And I ask myself the same question   And the band plays waltzing matilda   And the old men still answer to the call   But year after year their numbers get fewer   Some day no one will march there at all   Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda   Who'll go a-waltzing matilda with me?