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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.

History

Advance Australia Fair was composed by Peter Dodds McCormick, originally 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 instance, Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, used it to announce its news bulletins until 1952 . 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 organized 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 $5,000 AUD 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.

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.

Lyrics

Current

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

Original

Federation Adaptation, 1901

'Missing' verse?

Some have claimed there is a missing sixth verse. The sixth verse, unlike the others, had an overtly Christian overtone. While it has been performed in public before, the first performance in recent memory of this verse was during the Global March for Jesus in 1998. Awakening.org: Missing verse The most recent known performance of the verse was at a special service at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, on July 10, 2005 with Prime Minister John Howard present. It 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.

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.

Media

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External links

• Brief history
• Australian Government websites:
  • Official proclamation by the Govenor-General
  • Official published words, music with band parts and sound recordings
  • Four-part musical score & words PDF 169 KB
  • Australian National Anthem Audio for download (MP3 3.12 MB)
  • Department of Foreign Affair and Trade's webpage on Advance Australia Fair
  • Online scores held by Australian government libraries (The MusicAustralia collaboration)

1. [http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/nat_anthem.html Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: The Australian National Anthem
2. [http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/nat_anthem.html Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: The Australian National Anthem

• National anthems
• National symbols of Australia
• Australian songs