Sounds can mean so much. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia reminds us of that when it lists 10 audio recordings of cultural, historical and aesthetic significance for the country every year.
Among the first treasures to be recognised in 2008 were the earliest known recording of Waltzing Matilda (1926), Slim Dusty’s A Pub With No Beer (1957) and protest song We Have Survived (1981) by Indigenous band No Fixed Address.
The latest list includes the famous Doctor Who theme, which was written by Australian composer Ron Grainer then arranged electronically by Delia Derbyshire (1963); the maiden speech by the first Aboriginal woman elected to federal parliament, Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris (2013); and Tina Arena’s hit song Chains (1994).
Senator Nova Peris delivers her maiden speech in the Senate at Parliament House in 2013.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
There are now almost 200 sounds in a library of recorded history dating back to 1896. Some are debatable, others are obscure, but here are 10 of the most quintessentially Australian.
• Fanny Cochrane Smith, who called herself “the last of the Tasmanians”, recorded Aboriginal songs and language for the Royal Society of Tasmania (1899). Not only are they among the country’s earliest sound recordings, the archive says they are the only recorded examples of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs or language.
• Lance Corporal Henry Miller Lanser sent a Christmas message to his family from Mena Camp, Cairo (1914). “The past week, training is getting heavier every day,” he says. “My word, the Germans or Turks, as we hear, they are making for Egypt. Whatever happens, we’ll stop ’em from laughing anyhow.” It is moving to learn that two years after completing his training in Egypt, Lanser was killed at the age of 26 on the Western Front.
“The past week, training is getting heavier every day”: Henry Miller Lanser, 1st Australian Infantry Battalion.Credit: Australian War Memorial
• Don Bradman speaks after Australia wins the Ashes in England (1930). “I have always endeavoured to do my best for the side,” the Don says awkwardly in a recording made with captain Bill Woodfull and four teammates for sale back in Australia. “And the few centuries that have come my way have been achieved in the hope of winning matches.” Aged 21, Bradman scored 974 runs at an average of 139 in five Tests.
Don Bradman bats for Australia against England in 1930.Credit: Getty Images
• Joy King sings The Aeroplane Jelly Song (1938). It’s hard to believe a radio commercial for jelly crystals would still be famous more than eight decades after it was sung by a seven-year-old who won a competition. It proved infectiously catchy, despite such clumsy lines as “I like it for dinner/I like it for tea/A little each day/Is a good recipe”.
“Aeroplane Jelly for me”: Joy King, late Joy Wifflesworth, when she recorded the Aeroplane Jelly commercial as a child.Credit: Fairfax
• Poet Dorothea Mackellar recites the first stanza of her famous poem My Country (1958). “The love of field and coppice/Of green shaded lanes/Of ordered woods and gardens/Is running in your veins,” she says in a repudiation of the common idea at the time that England was home. “Strong love of grey-blue distance/Brown streams and soft dim skies/I know but cannot share it/My love is otherwise.”
• Koalas are lovable creatures. But a recording introduced as “a male koala grunting” sounds like the demented squealing of a pig (1968). Filmmaker and photographer Harold J. Pollock taped a koala’s courting ritual for a record called Bird and Animal Calls Of Australia.
Watched by Gough Whitlam. David Smith, official secretary to the governor-general, reads the proclamation dissolving parliament following the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975.Credit: Fairfax
• A jaunty Al Grassby, former minister for immigration in the Whitlam government, welcomes listeners to “Radio 2EA, the voice of ethnic Australia” with a program in Greek (1975). It was the start of SBS Radio’s multilingual broadcasts that soon expanded 3EA in Melbourne.
• Sacked prime minister Gough Whitlam delivers the “Kerr’s Cur” speech on the steps of Parliament House (1975). “Well may we say God save the Queen,” he says to an impassioned crowd and assembled journalists after governor-general John Kerr’s official secretary, David Smith, read a proclamation dissolving both houses of parliament. “Because nothing will save the governor-general.” It became one of the most famous lines in Australian political history.
• Men At Work’s Down Under (1981). A breezy song written by Colin Hay and Ron Strykert reached No.1 on the singles charts in Australia, the UK and the US then had a second life when Australia II won the America’s Cup in 1983. It features the immortal lines “Buying bread from a man in Brussels/He was six-foot-four and full of muscle/I said, ‘Do you speak-a my language?’/He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.”
Men At Work’s song Down Under is recognised as a recording of cultural significance by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.Credit: Simon Alekna
• Before it was declared extinct in 2017, a recording was made of the ultrasonic call of a microbat called the Christmas Island Pipistrelle (2009). It’s a poignant reminder of the fragility of many of our native species.
The Christmas Island Pipistrelle. a microbat, was once abundant but is now extinct.Credit: Lindy Lumsden
And here are five suggestions for future lists …
• While the archive has only included music from film soundtracks so far, it should add the masterful climactic scene – music, soundscape and dialogue – from Peter Weir’s Gallipoli, where Frank (Mel Gibson) is racing to call off a suicidal attack involving Archie (Mark Lee). It’s a classic Australian film that helped define the conflict for generations of viewers (1981).
• The SBS TV commentary of Cadel Evans becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France (2011).
Cadel Evans cycles down the Champs Elysees in Paris after winning the Tour de France in 2011. Credit: AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani
• The Bluey theme song – Joff Bush wrote a catchy tune that has become famous around the world (2018).
• Prime minister Scott Morrison saying “I don’t hold a hose, mate” after taking a holiday as the Black Summer bushfires raged (2019). The controversial comment became one of the best-remembered lines from his prime ministership.
Grace Tame during her emotional speech after being named Australian of the Year in 2021.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
• Grace Tame’s fierce speech about surviving sexual abuse by a school teacher when she won Australian of the Year (2021). “I remember him saying, ‘Don’t tell anybody,’” she said. “I remember him saying, ‘Don’t make a sound.’ Well, hear me now.”
Stirring sounds, all of them.
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