To start with a swag is your bedding roll etc - usually wrapped in canvas. A Swagman was someone who lived out of their swag (that they rolled up and carried in their travels). Many of them in early Australia would have maybe been shearers or farm workers that walked from job to job, from sheep station to sheep station. Either that or they were what we would call bushies who basically just like to live free and would live in the bush and only come into town when they needed supplies.
They could be a bit free with other people’s possessions. In the Aussie song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ the Swagman steals a Jumbuck (sheep) and ends up committing suicide in a Billabong (watering hole) when the cops catch up with him.
Mel
Thanks for the info...
Watch this short youtube clip.
Excerpt of “Waltzing Matilda” from “On the Beach” (1959)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n7LwzODzQg