Now when I was a young man and I carried my pack   And I lived the free life of the rover   From the murray's green basin to the dusty out back   I waltzed my matilda all over.   Then in 1915 my country said "son   It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done"   And 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 the ships pulled away from the quay   And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers   We sailed off to galipolli         And how I remember that terrible day   How our blood stained the sand and the water   And how in that hell that they called suvla bay   We were butchered like lambs to the slaughter.         Johnnie turk was ready, oh he primed himself well   He rained us with bullets and he showered us with shell   And in five minutes flat we were all blown to hell   Nearly blew us all back home to australia.         But the band played waltzing matilda   As we stuck to bury our slain   We burned ours and the turks buried theirs   And we started all over again         Those who were living just tried to survive   In a mad world of blood death and fire   And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive   While around me the corpses piled higher         Then a big turkish shell knocked me arse over head   And when I awoke in my hospital bed   And saw what it had done and I wished I was dead   Never knew there were worse things than dying   For no more I'll go waltzing matilda   All round the green bush far and near   For to hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs   No more waltzing matilda for me.         They collected the crippled, the wounded, the maimed   And they shipped us back home to australia   The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane   Those proud wounded heroes of suvla   And as our ship pulled in to circular key   And I looked at the place where my legs used to be   I thanked christ there was no one there 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 there and stared   And turned all their faces away         So now every april, I sit on my porch   And I watch the parade pass before me   And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march   Renewing their dreams of past glory         I see the old men all tired, stiff and sore   The weary old heroes of a forgotten war   And the young people ask "what are they marching for? "   And I ask myself the same question         And the band played waltzing matilda   And the old men still answer the call   But year after year, the numbers get fewer   Some day none will march there at all         Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda   Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me   And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong   Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me.