Australian National Anthem - Advance Australia Fair’
- 1878 - Advance Australia Fair - National Anthem history of Australia - Peter Dodds McCormick -
2 December 1878 - A patriotic new song was performed last Saturday at the Grand Annual Scottish Concert in the Protestant Hall in Sydney to celebrate St Andrew’s Day.
The song, called ‘Advance Australia Fair’, was written by a Scot under the pen-name ‘Amicus’. He is generally known as Peter Dodds McCormick and he was conductor on the day.
An amended version was also 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. Peter McCormick died in 1916 and ‘Advance Australia Fair’ became free of copyright in 1966. The Commonwealth of Australia, however, does copyright the officially proclaimed lyrics and particular arrangements of music. Non-commercial public use of the anthem is permitted, but commercial use requires permission.
Some of the original words of the song have been changed for the official version. ‘Australia’s sons let us rejoice’ was the original first line; this has been replaced with ‘Australians all let us rejoice’. In the third verse of the original song, two lines were changed—‘To make our youthful Commonwealth’ became ‘To make this Commonwealth of ours’, and ‘For loyal sons beyond the seas’ became ‘For those who’ve come across the seas’.
The song was performed in four verses and received a good reception.
The words of the first verse go:
Australia’s Sons let us rejoice
For we are young and free,
We ‘ye 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 hist’ry’s page let ev’ry stage
Advance Australia Fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair