Passionate researcher of the origins and copyright of ‘Waltzing Matilda’, Richard Magoffin pursued the theory that the iconic song was a political allegory related to the industrial troubles of the 1890s, especially the Shearer’ Strike(s). He assembled local oral history from the area where the song was made by Christina Macpherson and ‘Banjo’ Paterson and was a tireless investigator of the song’s troubled copyrights in Australia, UK and the USA. He published many books on the topic and was also an early exploiter of media fascination with the bush mythology, especially through his status as a native of Winton and environs where he lived all his life, descendant of a pioneering northwestern Queensland family.
The ‘Waltzing Matilda debate’ is a long-running national conversation about Australia’s favourite song, involving folklorists, authors Sydney May, Harry Pearce, Dennis O’Keeffe and many others.
Obituary at https://www.smh.com.au/national/poet-laid-matildas-ghost-to-rest-20060513-gdnjce.html, another at https://groups.google.com/g/alt.obituaries/c/ytoPW1KOMbw?pli=1
His papers and access to interviews with him in NLA at https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3067493
A reasonable entry on Wikipedia with some links and a partial bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda, accessed June 2021.
Very useful digest of the history and issues surrounding the song (and many more) up to around 2020 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle of The Traditional Ballad Index at https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/PBB119.html
On some aspects of the copyright issues see Graham Seal, ‘Going for a Song: The Cultural Politics of Waltzing Matilda’, The International Journal of the Book 10 (2), 2013 at https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/28405
