I'm American, but it seems to me that when I’ve encountered Australian speech or writing, I didn’t have much trouble understanding it. The words are mostly familiar to me. So what’s going on in Waltzing Matilda? I think that a typical American reader or listener will understand almost nothing of the story without discussion. Was it written this way deliberately? Or does the use of a lot of Austrian-isms reflect something about social class, the way Cockney English would? Do Austrians think it's funny because of this quality?