Episode Details

‘Waltzing Matilda’ moved a step closer to becoming Australia’s National Anthem on May 4th, 1976 - when Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser suggested in Parliament that he’d like to hear the song if Australia won gold at the Montreal Olympics. 

Throughout the seventies, there had been a big push to ditch God Save the Queen for something more Australian, but Gough Whitlam’s Labour government’s hunt for an alternative had picked Advance Australia Fair — a 19th-century song that Fraser then demoted to a trio of ‘national songs’ which were not to be considered as the national anthem. 

Further Reading:

• ‘Australia's national anthem’ (National Archives of Australia):  https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets/australias-national-anthem

• ‘How Advance Australia Fair waltzed with Matilda and won’ (The Conversation, 2014):  https://theconversation.com/how-advance-australia-fair-waltzed-with-matilda-and-won-21564

• ‘The Wiggles | Australian National Anthem’ (10 Football, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldo0iO7-Gzg

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