Australia, An Overview

 Advance Australia Fair is today's Australian National Anthem after 'God Save The Queen' was dumped in 1977. It took four years of talking, thinking and voting to decide on this song, written by Peter McCormick in 1878. It was chosen in a referendum receiving 2.9 million votes, other options 'Waltzing Matilda' (song about a sheep thief) got 1.9 million and the Queen's song got even less votes than the sheep thief with 1.3 million.

Advance Australia Fair was proclaimed as the national anthem by the Governor-General on 19 April 1984.  Advance Australia Fair was composed by Glasgow-born Peter Dodds McCormick(1834?-1916), who used the pen-name "Amicus", a Latin word meaning "friend".  The first public performance is thought to have been given in Sydney on November 30th, 1878 at the St. Andrew's Day concert of the Highland Society.  It was also sung by a choir of 10,000 at the inauguration of the Commonwealth, but with a few amendments by McCormick including the addition of the words "our youthful Commonwealth".

In 1907, the Commonwealth Government awarded McCormick £100 for his composition. McCormick died in 1916.  The copyright on Advance Australia Fair ended in 1966, fifty years after McCormick's death.

The Australian Labor Party policy for the 1972 elections included finding an alternative to God Save the Queen. The ALP won office in that election, and the Whitlam government (1972-75) announced in the Prime Minister's 1973 Australia Day address that a competition would be held under the auspices of the Australia Council for the Arts to find a new Australian national anthem.  Although a large number of submissions were received (2,500 lyric and 1,400 music entries), none were considered acceptable.  The judges recommended that one of three existing Australian songs - Advance Australia Fair, Banjo Patterson's Waltzing Matilda or Carl Linger's Song of Australia - be selected.

On April 8th, 1974, opinion polls were held by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the government announced that henceforth Advance Australia Fair was to be Australia's anthem, but with God Save the Queen to be played when (British) royalty was present.

The Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General (Sir John Kerr) on November 11, 1975, and was replaced by the Fraser (Liberal) government (1975-1983).  In January 1976, the Fraser government modified the rules governing the national anthem. Advance Australia Fair was to be used, without words, on non-regal occasions, and God save the Queen was to be used on all royal, vice-regal, defense, and loyal toast occasions.

The Fraser Government held a plebiscite, the National Song Poll, on 21 May 1977.  Advance Australia Fair won over the other options by a wide margin.  In spite of the poll results, adoption of the new anthem met with widespread opposition and obstruction.  Thus, it was not until 19th April, 1984 (in time for the Los Angeles Olympics) that Advance Australia Fair finally became Australia's national anthem, under the Hawke (Labor) government (1983-1991).  Advance Australia Fair was to be played at all official and ceremonial occasions; God Save the Queen became the "royal anthem", to be played when the Queen or members of the Royal Family are present.

Changes were also made to three lines of the text:

	McCormick's original words	Official version
Verse 1, line 1:	Australia's sons, let us rejoice	Australians all, let us rejoice
Verse 3, line 3:	To make our youthful Commonwealth	To make this Commonwealth of ours
Verse 3, line 5:	For loyal sons beyond the seas	For those who've come across the sea

          

 

Advance Australia Fair Lyrics

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

 

Excerpts taken from www.hamilton.net.au/advance.html & www.amazingaustralia.com.au/music.htm

 

 

 Waltzing Matilda

"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad, a country folk song, and has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".

The title is Australian slang for travelling by foot with one's goods in a "Matilda" (bag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker or swagman making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's ostensible owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the theft (a crime punishable by hanging), the worker drowns himself in a small watering hole and goes on to haunt the site.   To non-Australians , it must seem strange that this much-loved Australian song does not refer to the land itself, but rather mourns the suicide of a thieving vagabond. Nevertheless, it somehow speaks to the strong anti-authoritarian and independence streak in the Australian psyche, as it represents the battler struggling against the wealthy and being one with the Australian bush.*

 

Glossary of Terms In Waltzing Matilda

Waltzing 

derived from the German term auf der Walz, which means to travel while working as a craftsman and learn new techniques from other masters before returning home after three years and one day, a custom which is still in use today among carpenters.

Matilda 

a romantic term for a swagman's bundle. See below, "Waltzing Matilda."

Waltzing Matilda 

from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance, and so they danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman.

Another explanation is that the term also derives from German immigrants. German soldiers commonly referred to their greatcoats as "Matilda", supposedly because the coat kept them as warm as a woman would. Early German immigrants who "went on the waltz" would wrap their belongings in their coat, and took to calling it by the same name their soldiers had used.

Swagman 

a man who travelled the country looking for work. The swagman's "swag" was a bed roll that bundled his belongings.

Billabong 

an oxbow lake (a cut-off river bend) found alongside a meandering river.

Coolibah tree 

a kind of eucalyptus tree which grows near billabongs.

Jumbuck 

a large, difficult-to-shear sheep, not a tame sheep. Implies that the sheep was not 'owned' by the squatter or regularly shorn, thus not able to be stolen by the swagman.

Billy 

a can for boiling water in, usually 2–3 pints.

Tucker bag 

a bag for carrying food ("tucker").

Troopers 

policemen.

Squatter 

Australian squatters started as early farmers who raised livestock on land which they did not legally have the right to use; in many cases they later gained legal use of the land even though they did not have full possession, and became wealthy thanks to these large land holdings. The squatter's claim to the land may be as uncertain as the swagman's claim to the jumbuck.

 

 

Lyrics

There are no "official" lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda", and slight variations can be found in different sources. This version incorporates the famous "You'll never catch me alive said he" variation introduced by the Billy Tea company. Paterson's original lyrics referred directly to 'drowning', which the tea company felt was too negative.

 

 

Waltzing Matilda Lyrics

 

 

The Original Last Verse as written by Paterson:

But the swagman he up and he jumped in the water-hole,

Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree.

And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the billabong,

"Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me."

 

The original lyrics were written in 1887 by poet and nationalist Banjo Paterson. It was first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland. The Queensland version of the song is more similar to the original.

Waltzing Matilda has never been the officially recognized national anthem in Australia. Unofficially, however, it is often used in similar circumstances. The song was one of four included in a national plebiscite to choose Australia's national song held on 21 May 1977 by the Fraser Government to determine which song was preferred as Australia's national anthem. "Waltzing Matilda" received 28% of the vote compared with 43% for "Advance Australia Fair", 19% for "God Save the Queen" and 10% for "Song of Australia".

The lyrics are hidden on the final pages of Australian passports, such as above and below the words "notice" on some passports.