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Waltzing Matilda: a national anthem?
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Waltzing Matilda: a national anthem?From the beginning of white settlement in Australia until April 1974, the British anthem ‘God Save the Queen’ [or King] was used as Australia’s national anthem. However, when the Australian Labor Party won the federal election in 1972, the new Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, announced that the nation would seek its own distinctive national anthem. Whitlam’s initiative was not the first search for a new national anthem. There had been six others between 1902 and 1972. The starting point for the new competition was Australia Day (26 January), 1973. Nearly 2500 entries for the lyrics and 1300 musical versions were entered but none were deemed acceptable by the judges, who were operating under the auspices of the Australia Council for the Arts. Instead, they recommended one of three existing songs be selected: ‘Advance Australia Fair’, ‘God Save the Queen’, or ‘Waltzing Matilda’. As a result, the Australian Bureau of Census and Statistics polled 60 000 people in 1974, including at the time a fourth song, ‘Song of Australia’. |
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