Campbell Irvine’s face underneath his iconic, well-worn hat, framed by thick grey beard and hair, is of “Never-give-in, of bright heat and of help-your-mate,” as Henry Lawson would have said.
One of Australia’s last bush poets, the true essence of Waltzing Matilda, has been wandering up and down the country’s coast for the last four decades.
He regularly stops in near Mackay, and on a recent trip through Airlie Beach where he performed poetry at the Airlie Beach Foreshore Markets, our Whitsunday Life reporter caught up with one of the country’s last swagmen.
Wearing blue jeans and a red button-down, Campbell the Swaggie had five or more festival bands on his wrist — he pointed to one and said it would be gone soon, replaced by another.
He hunches when he walks from years of carrying heavy swags and billy kettles on the road — as well as being born disabled up one side — but when he sits down there is an instant ease and gladdening.
With a swag, a few bags, and his hat, the Swaggie has trekked most of Australia. He’s performed countless round-trip tours of the country, taking part in festivals in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and Darwin in a life under the stars.
He’s become an icon of folk Australia – although a New Zealand born Mauri – since he arrived in the country in 1975 following a band, The Bushwhackers. It was a first infatuation with the cultural history and character of the lucky country and most importantly its swagmen.
“I’m a bard, I guess you could say. An Itinerant, nomadic, traveller,” Campbell said.
“It was Waltzing Matilda that drew me to the swaggie’s life; and I’ve been doing it for 40 years now, living life on the hoof.”
Famed Australians and poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson would have called him a swagman. Others have called him a walking storybook and the embodiment of the bush ballads and poems. He performs the poetry of Australia’s past, as well as his own originals, and has made friends across the regions.
Especially in Airlie Beach, where most know him for his performances at Wintermoon Festival near Calen.
“I love the Whitsundays; it’s the Great Barrier Reef for me that is so special. I’ve only been there once but that was enough to know how important it is,” he said.
“There’s the bush side to it too: tramping the stock routes outback Queensland, I was reborn and raised into the whole thing from the Bushwhackers band and Australian folk music — that was back pretty well in the early ’70s and ‘80s,” he said.
“An apprenticeship between learning to love the land and being a swagman on the old routes of cattle musterers in Winton and places like that. I take on that character and tramped those routes.
“It bore down to a love of pretty much everything that’s Australian; I hold dearly to it and celebrate it, that sort of thing. I came here at about the age of 23 and I’ve never left this country — it’s been 47 years, now.”
Appearances at festivals have kept the storyteller on his chosen path, as well as busking in between those gigs to make ends meet. That keeps his pockets filled and the damper cooking — although he once claimed a government allowance but has not done so for more than 25 years.
He said it was a love of poetry that kept him travelling.
“It’s a history. It’s education, that’s the way I see it, you know,” he said, “it’s about my home, my new home that I’ve nearly been in for 50 years already.”
He said being a swagman, a traveller and to recite poetry on the road was “like bringing things to life.”
Campbell is 70 now, but still recites his poetry by memory, as well as hoofing it much of the country.
As if he weren’t extraordinary enough, he uses much of his busking money — as well as festival hauls — towards charities like the Flying Doctor’s Service and Australian Conservation.
“Old bush legends like me,” he said.
He also wants Waltzing Matilda to be the national anthem: “It has more to do with Australia than that other song we’ve got,” Campbell said.
Campbell will be travelling through Airlie Beach once again in the coming weeks, dropping by to see some old friends, recite some poetry, and have a laugh.
His final message for the people of the Whitsundays was “I’ll catch up with them on the road.”
Photography and story by Declan Durrant
Campbell Irvine is one of Australia’s last swagmen, a bush poet who regularly travels up the country’s coast, including Airlie Beach
Campbell the Swaggie’s iconic hat. Two torn wide brims on top of another, held together by tarn and cloth
Campbell’s only belongings when he’s hoofing it up the coast reciting poetry for a living
