A swagman is an old Australian term describing an underclass of transient temporary workers, who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying the traditional swag. Also characteristic of swagman attire was a hat strung with corks to ward off flies.
Particularly during the depression of the 1890s and the Great Depression of the 1930s (though, in much of Australia, the 1890s depression was far worse), unemployed men (they were mostly single men) travelled the rural areas of Australia on foot, their few meagre possessions rolled up and carried in their swag. Typically, they would seek work in farms and towns they travelled through, and in many cases the farmers, if no permanent work was available, would provide food and shelter in return for some menial task.
Before motor transport became common, the Australian wool industry was heavily dependent on itinerant shearers who carried their swags from farm to farm (called in Australia sheep stations), but would not in general have taken kindly to being called 'swagmen'. Outside of the shearing season their existence was frugal, and this possibly explains the tradition (of past years) of sheep stations in particular providing enough food to last until the next station even when no work was available.
A romanticised figure, the swagman remains famous through the song "Waltzing Matilda", by Banjo Paterson, which details a swagman who turns to stealing a sheep from the local squatter.
See also swag.
