a man travelling through the bushcarrying a Swag (q.v.), and seeking employment. Thereare variants, Swagger (more general in New Zealand), Swaggie, and Swagsman. The Sundowner, Traveller, or New Zealand Tussocker, is notgenerally a seeker for work.
1890. `The Argus,' June 7, p. 4, col. 2:
«The regular swagman carrying his ration bags, which willsometimes contain nearly twenty days' provender in flour andsugar and tea.»
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 156:
«We pulled up a swagman. He was walking very slow; he was abit lame too. His swag wasn't heavy, for he had only a rag ofa blue blanket, a billy of water in his hand, and very littleelse.»
1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Jan. 25:
«Under the electric light in the quadrangle of the Exhibitionthey will give tableaux, representing the murder of a swagmanby a native and the shooting of the criminal by a blacktracker.»
1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 11, p. 7, col. 2:
«The Yarra has claimed many swagman in the end, but not allhave died in full travelling costume . . . a typicalback-blocks traveller. He was grey and grizzled, but well fed,and he wore a Cardigan jacket, brown moleskin trousers, blucherboots, and socks, all of which were mended with rough patches.His knife and tobacco, his odds and ends, and his purse,containing 14 1/2d., were still intact, while across hisshoulder was a swag, and the fingers of his right hand hadtightly closed round the handle of his old black billy-can, inwhich were some scraps of meat wrapped in a newspaper of the5th inst. He had taken with him his old companions of theroads – – his billy and his swag.»