Advance Australia Fair

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Image:National anthem booth - floriade.jpg
The National Anthem booth at the 2005 Floriade, Canberra - on the J. Verbeeck fairground organ.

Advance Australia Fair is the official national anthem of Australia. Composed by Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed in 1878, but did not gain its status as the official anthem until 1984. Until then, the song was sung in Australia as a patriotic song. In order for the song to become the anthem, it had to face a vote between the Royal anthem God Save the Queen and the "unofficial anthem" Waltzing Matilda. Other songs and marches have been influenced from Advance Australia Fair, such as the Australian Vice-Regal salute.

Contents

[edit] History

Advance Australia Fair was composed by Peter Dodds McCormick under the pen-name 'Amicus' (which means 'friend' in Latin), in the late 19th century, and first performed by Andrew Fairfax at a Highland Society function in Sydney on 30 November 1878. The song quickly gained popularity and an amended version was sung by a choir of 10,000 at the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. In 1907 the Australian Government awarded McCormick £100 for his composition.

Before its adoption as Australia's national anthem, Advance Australia Fair saw considerable use elsewhere. For example, Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, used it to announce its news bulletins until 1952.[1] It was also frequently played at the start or end of official functions.

In 1973 the Whitlam government decided that the country needed an anthem that could represent Australia with "distinction" and started a competition to find one. The Australia Council for the Arts organised the contest which was dubbed as the Australian National Anthem Quest. The contest was held in two stages; the first seeking lyrics and the second music, each having a AUD $5,000 prize for the winning entry. On the recommendation of the Council for the Arts, none of the new entries were felt worthy enough, so the contest ended with the suggestions for Advance Australia Fair, Waltzing Matilda and Song of Australia.[2]

Advance Australia Fair emerged as the most popular choice for the national anthem after an opinion poll in 1974 (the Australian Bureau of Statistics polled 60,000 nationally).

At the same time as the 1977 referendum, a national plebiscite was held to choose the National Song. Advance Australia Fair received 43.6% of the vote, defeating the three alternatives: Waltzing Matilda (28.5%), Song of Australia (9.7%), and the then-current national anthem God Save the Queen (18.7%).

Advance Australia Fair was adopted as the national anthem on 19 April 1984 by a decision of the Labor government of Bob Hawke and a proclamation by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen.[3]

[edit] Criticism

Both the lyrics and melody of the anthem have been criticised in some quarters as being dull and unendearing to the Australian people. National Party Senator Sandy Macdonald said in 2001 that Advance Australia Fair is so boring that the nation risks singing itself to sleep, with boring music and words impossible to understand.[4] His Parliamentary colleague Peter Slipper thought Australia should consider another anthem.[5]

Australian Labor Party politician Craig Emerson took aim at one famously archaic word in the lyrics: "Our home is girt by sea. This must rank as one of the worst lines of any national anthem. That Australia is an island should be pretty obvious, but is our anthem girt by a sea of mediocrity?"[6] However, Mr Emerson's party leader, Kim Beazley argued "Well, look. I stand up on behalf of girt. Girt by sea needs to be celebrated and if we can't do that regularly when Australia enjoys its sporting triumphs, at the beginning or our school assemblies and I think something would be lost that is new and decent and essential to the Australian character."[7]

[edit] Lyrics

[edit] Current

It is currently under investigation if the current lyrics are sufficiently free of copyright to include on Wikipedia - see Talk:Advance Australia Fair#Official lyrics are copyrighted. In the interim the complete lyrics can be found here: [8]

[edit] Original

[edit] Federation Adaptation, 1901

[edit] 'Missing' verse?

Some have claimed there is a missing sixth verse.[10] This verse has an overtly Christian overtone. The first performance in recent memory of this verse was during the Global March for Jesus in 1998.[10] The most recent known performance of the verse was at a special service at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, on 10 July 2005 with Prime Minister John Howard present. However the verse is in fact not McCormick's. It is not known who the true author of the verse is, nor when it was first penned and used.

[edit] Copyright status

Even though any copyright of Peter Dodds McCormick' original lyrics has expired as he died in 1916, the Commonwealth of Australia does copyright the officially proclaimed lyrics and particular arrangements of music. Non-commercial use of the anthem is permitted without case-by-case permission, but commercial use does require permission.[11]

[edit] Media

[edit] References

  1. ^ Media Resources - Images and Audio files for Download. National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. (1943 - The Majestic Fanfare by Charles Williams, the ABC radio news theme )
  2. ^ Australian National Anthem - History. Australian Government (10 July 2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
  3. ^ Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia - National Symbols. Parliament of Australia (21 September 2005). Retrieved on 2007-11-01. (proclamation by Governor General dated 19 April 1984)
  4. ^ Barbie Dutter (2001-6-27). Call to scrap Australia's 'dull' anthem. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  5. ^ Senator reignites debate over national anthem. ABC (2001-6-21). Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  6. ^ Advance Australia Fair: Selected WWW links. hamilton.net.au. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  7. ^ Kim Beazley - Doorstop Interview (transcript). Australian Labor Party (2001-06-21). Retrieved on 2007-12-20. (Archived copy)
  8. ^ a b The Australian National Anthem. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
  9. ^ Digital Collections - Advance Australia Fair. National Library of Australia. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
  10. ^ a b c Lost verse puts Christ into the National Anthem (6 June 2000).
  11. ^ Australian National Anthem - Commercial use. Australian Government (10 July 2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.

[edit] External links

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Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Advance Australia Fair
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National anthems of Oceania and the Pacific Islands
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ar:نشيد أستراليا الوطني

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