Image: 1890s recording studio. Thomas Rome Collection. Courtesy the Arts Centre, Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

1896 - The Hen Convention  (NFSA Catalogue No. 452097)

The earliest known Australian recording, made by Dr Thomas Rome of a novelty song featuring imitations of a chook sung by J.J. Villiers, a Warrnambool businessman who had a display stand at the Warrnambool exhibition. He appeared in amateur theatrical presentations for many years acting as a performer scenic painter and decorator as far back as 1872. This recording is known to have been made prior to 15th January 1897 at the Warnambool Industrial and Art Exhibition on an Edison cylinder recorder.

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)

Image: Dame Nellie Melba making her famous broadcast in 1920. Courtesy of Bodleian Library, Oxford.

1904 - Chant Venitien (Gramophone 'Melba' Record GC3575) (NFSA Catalogue No. 301462)

Nellie Melba's first commercial recording sessions for the Gramophone Co in London, 20 October, 1904. The accompanist was Herman (sometimes Henri) Bemberg. Melba's success and popularity highlights the impact of the gramophone in bringing great music into the homes of ordinary people.

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: The landing of Australian troops in Egypt (AWM Collections Search CO 2588)

1915 - The Landing of the Australian Troops in Egypt (Zonophone 3068)   (NFSA Catalogue No. 229760)

This includes what is probably the first recording of Advance Australia Fair and is a fascinating concoction of a recording, probably made in London sometime after the Australians landed at Gallipoli. As a seminal recording of the song that was to become our national anthem, and also an early example of the use of sound recording for the dramatisation of historic events, this little known recording is a hidden gem in the NFSA's collection.

Image: Peter Dawson

1921/1931 - Along the Road to Gundagai (HMV EA 889)  (NFSA Catalogue No. 332353)

Along the Road to Gundagai was written by Jack O'Hagan in 1921 and recorded by Peter Dawson in 1931. O'Hagan was a major Australian songwriter between the wars and this recording of his most famous song recorded by the most popular Australian singer of the day remains instantly recognisable.

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: Courtesy of the Williams family.

1939 - Give A Little Credit To Your Dad; Lonesome For You Mother Dear (Regal Zonophone G 23855) (NFSA Catalogue No. 190438)

Two songs from Buddy Williams' first recording session on 7 September, 1939. Williams was the first Australian-born country singer to write and record songs with a distinctive Australian flavour. Commencing his recording career at age 21 with the Regal Zonophone Co. Buddy continued to make records until shortly before his death in 1986. Australia has taken country music to its heart, and the Australian flavour of our contemporary country music now belies its American origins.

 Listen to Lonesome For You Mother Dear

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: Graeme Bell with his Dixieland band

1944 - Swanston St Shamble; Two Day Jag (Ampersand 2) (NFSA Catalogue No. 232811)

Graeme Bell's Dixieland Band first published recording made in Melbourne in 1944. Graeme Bell has been a central figure in Australian jazz for over 60 years and these historic recordings mark his first commercially released tracks made three years before his ground-breaking tours to Europe in the late 40s.

 to Swanston St Shamble

 to Two Day Jag

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: AP Elkin. Courtesy of the University of Sydney

1953 - Tribal Music of Australia (Folkways FE4439) (NFSA Catalogue No. 242999)

The first available LP recording of traditional Aboriginal music, released by the well known Ethnic Folkways label in America from recordings made by AP Elkin. While the music is of ongoing musicological interest, little regard was given at the time to cultural sensitivities regarding ownership and who has the rights to listen to this music. The Archive now consults with the traditional owners to obtain clearance to make it publicly available.

Image: Johnny O'Keefe on stage in 1959 with his band and The Delltones

1960 - She's My Baby/Own True Self (Leedon/Lee Gordon LS 582) (NFSA Catalogue No. 291386)

The first Number 1 hit for Australia's first big pop star, Johnny O'Keefe. His success as a home grown rock'n'roll star owed much to the American connections he enjoyed through his association with concert promoter Lee Gordon. American Scotty Turner (aka Graham Turnbull), one of the song's co-writers, played the newly written song to O'Keefe while on tour of Australia, and O'Keefe recorded the song in the USA in 1959 with Barney Kessell playing rhythm guitar.

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)

Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament House, 11 November, 1975

1975 - Gough Whitlam's 'Kerr's cur' speech on the steps of Parliament House on 11 November, 1975 (NFSA Catalogue No. 156392

This was recorded on the steps of Parliament House on 11 November, 1975. The events of this day are significant enough in themselves, but it is Whitlam's rhetorical brilliance, dramatic flair and outraged passion that set this recording apart from the many other important political and historic speeches and announcements preserved as sound recordings. Press photographs of the moment show at least seven microphones recording Sir David Smith and Gough Whitlam, so it is just about impossible to know exactly where this recording actually came from

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)

Image:Men at Work. CBS Records publicity
1981

1981 - Down Under/Crazy (CBS BA 222891) (NFSA Catalogue No. 337398)

Men At Work's song has become an Australian icon recognised internationally, described in Wikipedia as an "unofficial national anthem". While popular as a nationalistic sing-along Men at Work front-man Colin Hay describes the lyric as being "about the selling of Australia" (the chorus ironically refers to a land where "men plunder"). The record was a number one single in Australia, the UK and the USA, making Men At Work one of only five artists to achieve simultaneous number one chart success in both Britain and America.

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)