Long Live the Worker!
A subtitle which occasionally accompanies the poem is (Written for the “Worker”). The poem was inspired by a strike by Australian shearers in 1891 and contains vivid imagery extolling the virtue of hard worker versus the vice of those who earn their living while loafing. The ancestry of the founding of Australia is situated within this construct by contrasting the poor, working class who chose to leave England despite strong feelings of loyalty rather than continue toiling for low wages while the loafers around then thrived. Later on, the imagery of hard work is applies to the settling and civilizing of the country with another comparison made that is less than flattering to the British aristocracy. The country was created through the work of those willing to suffer for it without any crowd of loafing lords to reap the benefits without contributing to the labor.
The Australian Identity
Another strong theme that is consistent from the opening lines to the last are the establishment of a national identity for Australians that is separate and, indeed, antagonistic to the shared British heritage common to most of the population. The opening lines immediately set the tone with the proud assertion (and possibly sly reminder to some) of its spectacular size. There then follows a full stanza in which nearly every line prominently features some peculiarly Aussie slang term. From “humping bluey” to “boomerang” to “boil another billy” this opening stanza is almost defiantly Australian. Those reading the poem back in the home country would doubtlessly be left scratching their heads in wonder or bemusement at just what the heck this poet was going on about in contrast to those readers to whom the nationalist appeal was targeted.
Freedom is Worth Fighting For
As the title indicates, freedom is a central theme of the poem, but it goes much deeper than mere abstraction. The themes extolling the working class and tying that in with the sense of national identity creates an underlying tension of the freedom of Australia being a thing that was created and lends a sense of ownership. When one possesses freedom, the threat of having it compromised infuses the situation with a desperation. All these themes and every line of the poem leads inexorably to its conclusion which is nothing less than a call to arms to defend the freedom of Australia which so many citizens—and generations of ancestors—fought so hard to make their own. The poem which started out with Aussie vernacular peculiar only to some ends with heated rhetoric understandable around the world: a call to rebellion which seeks to throttle tyrants and shed their blood.
