Combo Waterhole

Combo Waterhole is a natural waterhole and conservation park on the Diamantina River near Kynuna in McKinlay Shire, Queensland. It is widely associated with the origins of Banjo Paterson's song Waltzing Matilda, inspired by events at nearby Dagworth Station in 1894-1895. The seasonal billabong, fringed by coolibah trees and Mitchell grass plains, is protected as Combo Waterhole Conservation Park and offers visitors a quiet outback landscape with birdlife and cultural heritage interpretation.

Visitors can expect a remote outback billabong on the Diamantina River floodplain, surrounded by coolibah trees, lignum and Mitchell grass plains. The site is accessed via an unsealed track from Kynuna and features interpretive signage explaining its link to Waltzing Matilda. There are no built structures beyond signage and an informal parking area. Visitors can walk around the waterhole edge when dry, observe birdlife and enjoy the open, flat landscape typical of western Queensland channel country.

Combo Waterhole is linked to events at Dagworth Station in September 1894 during the shearers' strike, when shearer Samuel Hoffmeister died near the waterhole. In 1895 Banjo Paterson visited the district and, hearing the story from station manager Bob Macpherson, wrote the lyrics to Waltzing Matilda, which became one of Australia's best-known folk songs. The waterhole and surrounding pastoral landscape reflect late 19th-century pastoral history in western Queensland.

The waterhole is culturally significant as the reputed inspiration for Waltzing Matilda, regarded as an unofficial national song of Australia. It is interpreted for visitors as a place of Australian folklore, bush poetry and pastoral heritage, and is a stop on the Waltzing Matilda heritage trail in the Winton-Kynuna region.