2007 Additions

Image: Fanny Cochrane Smith recording with Dr Harold Watson, Photo courtesy of the Museum of Tasmania

1899 - Fanny Cochrane Smith’s recordings of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs

The only recorded example of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs - and the only recorded example of Tasmanian Aboriginal language. Fanny Cochrane Smith was born on Flinders Island and married a sealer, William Smith. In late 1899 and 1903 she recorded for the Royal Society in Hobart all the Tasmanian songs that she knew. She recorded six cylinders in both English and the Tasmanian Aboriginal language.

NFSA Collection: Title No 500445 (excerpt)

Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams aboard the Nimrod, 4 or 5 March, 1909. National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an24648174

1910 - My South Polar Expedition - Ernest Shackleton

A cylinder recording made in 1910 by Shackleton on his return from the Nimrod expedition to Antarctica. Shackleton and his companions made it to within 97 miles of the South Pole, travelling 1700 miles by foot and sled. This recording tells of the loss of some of the party’s horses which was one of the reasons the group turned back before reaching the Pole. This was one of the expeditions documented in film and still photographs by Frank Hurley.

NFSA Collection: Title No 562537

Image: Cast of Dad and Dave discuss the script. NFSA Title No: 356408

1937-1953  - Dad and Dave from Snake Gully

Produced by and starring George Edwards, pioneer of Australian radio drama, based on the characters created by Steele Rudd. It dramatised the trials of Dad, Mum, their son Dave and their family and neighbours in outback Snake Gully. It was estimated 90 per cent of the population listened to Dad and Dave. 2276 fifteen-minute episodes were recorded and broadcast throughout Australia and New Zealand and have been repeated many times over the years.

NFSA Collection: Title No 737158 - Dad and Dave Ep 1 and 677627 Theatre of the Mind

Image: Martin Royal reading the ABC News. Photo courtesy of ABC Archives

1943 - The Majestic Fanfare by Charles Williams, the ABC radio news theme

Written in 1935, this work was recorded in 1943 by the Queens Hall Light Orchestra conducted by the composer, Englishman Charles Williams, who also wrote music for Alfred Hitchcock, the BBC and other British television organisations. An 18-second version was adopted as the theme music for the ABC News and first used on 1 January, 1952. Previously, it was deployed for Parliamentary broadcasts. The abbreviated Fanfare replaced a shortened version of ‘Advance Australia Fair’, penned by the Scotsman Peter Dodds McCormack in 1879. Shortening what was already regarded as a significant national song was regarded as somewhat sacrilegious, while shortening the apolitical ‘Majestic Fanfare’ was deemed less contentious.

(NFSA Title No 37182)

Image: NAA, A1200, L26000
Harold Blair, Australian Aboriginal tenor, in his studio at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music, Melbourne

1950  - Maranoa Lullaby – Harold Blair

Harold Blair was the first Aboriginal Australian to achieve recognition as a classical singer. This recording is one of two unreleased songs on a lacquer disc donated to the NFSA by Dorothy Blair (Harold’s widow). It is perhaps an early version of a five-song EP Blair recorded in 1950. This contains notated versions of five traditional ‘Australian Aboriginal Songs: Melodies, Rhythms and Words Truly and Authentically Aboriginal’. They were arranged for voices and keyboard by the itinerant British composer Arthur Steadman Loam (1898-1976), who was introduced to these songs by Dr H.O. Lethbridge, whose family owned the Maranoa Station in Queensland. The melody figures prominently in the music of Peter Sculthorpe, notably in the Canticle section of his 2004 choral ‘Requiem’.

(NFSA Title No. 245797)

Image: At the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's recording of the ballet suite Corroboree in 1950, from left, R V Southey (Recording Manager), John Antill (Composer) and Eugene Goossens (Conductor of the SSO) Photo courtesy ABC Archives  http://www.abc.net.au

1950  - Corroboree by John Antill, performed by the ABC Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens HMV ED1193-4

First major orchestral work by an Australian composer on a recognisable Australian subject to achieve national and international recognition. Meticulously planned by composer John Antill and loosely based on the Australian Aboriginal song-dance ceremony, a 16-minute suite from the 45-minute ballet score of ‘Corroboree’ was first performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Goossens in August 1946. Goossens subsequently performed it with several international orchestras and recorded an expanded ‘Suite’ with the SSO in December 1950 (a recording recently re-released on the occasion of the SSO’s 75th anniversary). As a fully staged ballet, the world premiere was given in Sydney in July 1950, and revived again for the Royal Tour of 1954. Two further recordings with the SSO exist - Antill’s own (HMV OASD 7554,1967) and the full ballet score conducted by John Lanchberry (HMV OASD 7603,1977).

(NFSA Collection: Title No. 297286)

Image courtesy National Library of Australia nla.pic-an12538999

1953 - Jack Luscombe recorded by John Meredith

The recording of Jack Luscombe was the formative item in the John Meredith Folklore Collection housed with the National Library of Australia. The collection by pioneering oral and folk historian John Meredith (1920-2001) is the most important of its kind in Australia. This recording contains three 'folk' songs that include mention of unionism, shearing and the Kelly gang. As with many of the songs in this collection, they were learnt in the aural/oral tradition and would have been lost had Meredith not recorded them. The ubiquitous ‘Ryebuck (or Ribuck) Shearer’ is one of the songs preserved. Born around 1873, Luscombe was also involved in the Shearers’ Strike of 1891, which gave birth to organised unionism and the Australian Labor Party. On this recording, he provides one of the very few oral history recollections of that seminal event.

(NFSA Title No. 737269. John Meredith Collection, National Library of Australia TRC4)

Image: The Easybeats. L-R: George Young, Stevie Wright, Harry Vanda, Dick Diamonde, Tony Cahill. Courtesy J. Albert and Son. NFSA Title No. 492436

1966 - Friday On My Mind – The Easybeats Parlophone A8234

The Easybeats’ ‘Friday On My Mind’ was the first international pop hit by an Australian band, and a landmark in the distinguished career of songwriting team Harry Vanda and George Young. With a distinctive guitar arrangement, universally appealing lyrics, and a high standard of production, ‘Friday On My Mind’ exemplifies the qualities of a classic pop song. With members from England, Scotland and the Netherlands, the Easybeats demonstrate the importance of post-war immigration in Australian popular music.

(NFSA Collection: Title No. 258900)

Image: The Saints. L-R: Ivor Hay, Kym Bradshaw, Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper. © Ed Kuepper

1976 - (I’m) Stranded/ No Time – The Saints Power Exchange records PX242 / EMI 11346

This song has been cited in The Rough Guide to Punk as "One of the iconic singles of the era" and predated most of the English punk recordings. Written by guitarist Ed Kuepper and vocalist Chris Bailey, the track was originally released on the band's own Fatal Records label, with an initial pressing of 500 copies and on the strength of this first release the band were signed to EMI Records. In 2001, it was voted among the Top 30 Australian Songs of all time by APRA.

(NFSA Collection: Title No. 322350)

With the recent passing of the Warumpi Band's lead singer we ask that his family's wishes be respected by not including images or sounds of the Warumpi Band in media coverage of the addition of ‘Jailanguru Pakarnu’ to the Sounds of Australia registry.

1983 - Jailanguru Pakarnu – The Warumpi Band Hot Records HOT703

The first pop release in Indigenous language. The Warumpi Band originated in the Aboriginal settlement of Papunya in the central desert region of the Northern Territory in the early eighties. The band's name derives from the honey-ant dreaming site located near the settlement of Papunya which is 260km west of Alice Springs. Original founding members included Sammy and Gordon Butcher, and Neil Murray assisted by other young men in the community. They toured the Northern Territory and Kimberly region playing to communities, outback stations and isolated townships developing their unique sound and writing much of their material on the road. The Warumpi Band wrote, recorded and released the first rock song in an Aboriginal language 'Jailanguru Pakarnu’ (‘Out from Jail’) in 1983. The B-side was ‘Kintorelakutu’ (‘Towards Kintore’).

(NFSA Title No. 244115)