Great Aussie songs (and moments)
A starter playlist for new Aussies (and old ones). Nothing here is in the citizenship test — it’s just good music, and handy at a barbie when someone puts one on and everyone sings along. Tap Play on any song; nothing loads until you do.
Everybody sing
One of Australia’s best-loved songs. Wait for the bagpipes, then try not to join in on the “whoa-oh-oh”.
Peter Allen, born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, wrote it about coming home from overseas. Bring tissues.
Released in 1991 and still the song that gets every single person at the party singing. Every. Single. Person.
Hunters & Collectors’ big anthem — you’ll hear it at the AFL Grand Final, and at pretty much every footy club do.
Icehouse’s 1982 ode to the wide open country. Best played loud on a long drive.
Crowded House formed in Melbourne in 1985, which explains a lot about this song.
The Easybeats met at a migrant hostel in Sydney, and this 1966 hit about waiting for the weekend went around the world.
John Paul Young’s 1978 hit got a second life in the 1992 Aussie film Strictly Ballroom.
The Bee Gees spent their teenage years in Redcliffe, near Brisbane, where there’s now a Bee Gees Way.
Savage Garden were a Brisbane duo, and this went to number one in the US and Australia.
Powderfinger were a Brisbane band, and this 2000 hit is one of the most-played songs on Aussie radio.
Not Australian at all: New Zealand’s Flight of the Conchords, asking the big question about their neighbours.
Melbourne’s Gotye, with Kimbra. A number one in more than 20 countries in 2012.
Banjo Paterson wrote the words in 1895: a swagman, a stolen sheep and a billabong. It’s often called Australia’s unofficial national anthem.
Cold Chisel’s 1984 song about going back to the country town you grew up in. Every Aussie has a version of this town.
Daddy Cool’s 1971 hit spent ten weeks at number one in Australia, and it’s still the song that gets dads dancing.
Written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers and Dobe Newton. Its line “We are one, but we are many” makes it a favourite at community events.
A number one in Australia, the US and the UK, and the song that taught the world about Vegemite sandwiches.
AC/DC with bagpipes. The 1976 film clip shows the band playing on the back of a truck rolling down Swanston Street in Melbourne.
A man writes home to his brother at Christmas. Fans now call 21 December, the date in the song, “Gravy Day”.
Kylie Minogue’s 2001 hit went to number one in dozens of countries. Try getting it out of your head now.
Kylie’s 1987 breakthrough, from the year she was on TV every night in Neighbours.
From Bluey, the cartoon about a family of Blue Heeler dogs in Brisbane. The show’s music is written by Joff Bush.
Songs with a story
These songs are part of the story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples — the world’s oldest continuous cultures — and the long fight for land rights and recognition. Many Australians know every word.
Tells the story of the Gurindji people, led by Vincent Lingiari, who walked off Wave Hill cattle station in 1966 in protest at their pay and conditions. Nine years later, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured a handful of soil into Lingiari’s hand as some of their land was handed back.
By Yothu Yindi, a band from north-east Arnhem Land led by Mandawuy Yunupingu, sung in English and Yolŋu Matha. It was written after a treaty between the Australian Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was promised in 1988 — and became a hit around the world.
Written by Neil Murray for the Warumpi Band and made famous by Christine Anu, a Torres Strait Islander singer, who performed it at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Archie Roach’s 1990 song about the Stolen Generations — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families. Roach was taken from his own family as a child. A gentle, powerful song.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, from Elcho Island in Arnhem Land, sang mostly in Yolŋu languages. His voice is one of the most beautiful Australia has produced.
Midnight Oil wrote it after touring remote Aboriginal communities in 1986. It’s about giving land back to the Pintupi people of Central Australia.
Great Aussie moments
Cathy Freeman, a proud Kuku Yalanji and Birri Gubba woman, won the 400 metres at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in front of 110,000 people — a moment that stopped the nation.
In 2002, speed skater Steven Bradbury was last when everyone ahead of him fell over, and he glided through to win Australia’s first Winter Olympics gold. “Doing a Bradbury” now means an unlikely win.
In 1993, with his first ball in an Ashes Test in England, Shane Warne spun one past Mike Gatting to hit the stumps. They called it the Ball of the Century.
And for a crash course in which Aussies are famous and why, here’s How to Talk Australians. (Some cheeky language.)
In 1983, the yacht Australia II, with its secret winged keel, ended the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year winning streak in the America’s Cup. The whole country partied.
Ash Barty, a proud Ngarigo woman from Ipswich in Queensland, won the 2022 Australian Open — the first Australian woman to win it since 1978.
In the 2023 Women’s World Cup quarter-final in Brisbane, the Matildas beat France after 20 penalties. Cortnee Vine scored the winner, and the nation lost its voice.
Sir Donald Bradman’s final innings in 1948. He needed four runs for a career average of 100. He was out for a duck, and finished on 99.94.
In 1969 the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales helped send the Moon landing to the world. The film The Dish tells the story.
Must-watch: Babakiueria
A 1986 ABC comedy that turns the story of colonisation upside down: Aboriginal explorers land at a barbecue area, ask what the place is called, and name the country “Babakiueria”. Then a documentary crew studies the strange white natives. With Aboriginal actors playing the colonisers, it’s sharp, funny and still shown in schools — a clever way into a serious part of Australia’s history. (About 30 minutes.)
And the one you’ll hear at your ceremony
“Advance Australia Fair” was written by Peter Dodds McCormick in 1878 and became the national anthem in 1984. In 2021 one line changed from “For we are young and free” to “For we are one and free”.