Waltzing Matlida

My dad used to sing this song on occasion. I came across it today when I saw a post about the HMAS Diamantina, a WW2 era cruiser, on Military Photos dot net. Seems the ship was named after the Diamantina River, which was named after Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of the first governor of Queensland. The Diamantina River was the site of an altercation between a rebellious sheep shearer, one Samuel "Frenchy" Hoffmeister, and the authorities that led to Frenchy's suicide. That altercation is the subject of this song.

HMAS Diamantina after conversion to oceanographic work.

View July 2013 in a larger map The Diamantina River has no main channel, rather it is a series of wide relatively shallow channels, which makes for some bizarre satellite images. This makes the second post about Australia today. Odd, that.