Sounds of Australia

2011 Additions

The 2011 list includes a wide range of Australian recorded sound heritage, from anthropological recordings made in the Torres Strait in 1898 to Kylie Minogue’s 1987 hit I Should Be So Lucky. There’s 1920s comedy from Stiffy & Mo and the historic first speeches made by women in an Australian parliament, there’s sport and there’s Skyhooks — explore an audio snapshot of Australia with the Sounds of Australia.

Go to the complete list.

1898 The Recordings of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits — Alfred Cort Haddon and others

The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898, led by Professor AC Haddon, was the first British expedition to use the phonograph for research purposes. These are the first audio recordings of the songs and music of Indigenous Australians. The recordings were transferred to magnetic tape from wax cylinders by the British Institute of Recorded Sound in 1978. The collection features songs and speech from Mer / Murray Island, Mabuiag / Jervis Island, Saibai Island, Tudu Island and Iama / Yam Island. The original wax cylinder recordings are in the collection of the British Library and 38 can be heard on the Library’s Archival Sound Recordings site. Copies are also held by AIATSIS as collection BNA 01.

NFSA title: 8879
Audio: courtesy of the British Library. Digital access version of original wax cylinder recordings held in the collections of the British Library

1927 The Sailors — Stiffy & Mo

Parlophone A2330

Comedians Nat Phillips (1883-1932) ‘Stiffy the Rabbit-o’ and Roy Rene (1891-1954) ‘Mo’ formed a comedy duo in 1916 which was highly successful on the vaudeville circuit until 1925. They were best known for their risqué or ‘blue’ comedy routines. They broke up in 1925, but reformed in 1927 for 18 months. In this period they recorded four record sides for Parlophone in June 1927, two of which were released as The Sailors, a comedy routine that carried across both sides of the disc. Rene went on to greater success on the stage, screen and radio with his character Mo McCackie.

The Sailors Part 1

The Sailors Part 2

NFSA title: 253375

1943 The maiden parliamentary speeches of Dame Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney — Dame Enid Lyons (1897-1981), Dorothy Tangney (1911-1985)

The General Election of 1943 saw the first two women elected to the Australian Parliament, Edith Lyons for the United Australia Party in the seat of Darwin in north-west Tasmania, and Dorothy Tangney as a Labor Party Senator from Western Australia. While Tangney delivered her maiden speech on her first day in the Senate on 24 September 1943, as an Address-in-Reply to the Governor General it wasn’t recorded by the ABC until 21 April 1944. Likewise Lyons’ speech on 29 September, described as ‘eloquent and richly written’, was probably recorded after it was delivered. It is noticeable that there is no background or ambient sound that might be expected from a parliamentary chamber.

Read more about Dame Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney on australianscreen online.

The maiden parliamentary speech of Dorothy Tangney

The maiden parliamentary speech of Dame Enid Lyons

NFSA title: 483102 (Tangney)
NFSA title: 483285 (Lyons)
Audio: courtesy of Serjeant-at-Arms, Parliament House

1952 Ken Howard calling the Melbourne Cup — Ken Howard MBE (1913-1976)

Australia’s best known race caller described 32 Melbourne Cups in a career that spanned from 1936 until 1973. Some of his colourful phrases, such as ‘London to a brick on’ have become part of the Australian vernacular. He broadcast for 2KY, 3XY, 2UE and 2GB as well as working for Channel 9, hosting the first TV program on horse racing in December 1956. Until 1952, broadcasters were not allowed to broadcast from the race courses themselves, so ingenious off-course vantage points were used to enable the calls. Howard doesn’t hold the record for Melbourne Cup broadcasts, both Bill Collins and Joe Brown called more, but Ken Howard remains the best known name in Australian race calling. The first audio selection is of the 1941 Melbourne Cup, won by Skipton, carrying 47.6 kg at 8/1. He was ridden by W Cook, trained by J Fryer and the prize money was £7,700. The second example is of the 1952 Cup, won by Dalray, the favorite at 5/1 carrying 60.78 kg, ridden by Bill Williamson and trained by C C McCarthy. The prize money in 1952 had risen to £14,500.

Ken Howard calling the Melbourne Cup, 1941

Ken Howard calling the Melbourne Cup, 1952

NFSA title: 455550

1960 The Art of the Prima Donna — Dame Joan Sutherland (1926-2010)

Decca AUS 1003/4

In 1951 Joan Sutherland moved to England to pursue an operatic career after she won the Sun Aria Competition in Sydney. Based in London through the 1950s she and her husband Richard Bonynge refined her singing style to that of a dramatic coloratura soprano singing the bel canto repertoire. In 1959 she was engaged to sing Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, at Covent Garden which was a breakthrough role in her career. The following year she recorded The Art of the Prima Donna, a two LP set of coloratura arias. The recording with the Royal Opera House Orchestra conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli is still considered one of the great opera recordings. The Art of the Prima Donna won the Grammy for Best Classical Performance — Vocal Soloist in 1962. The audio is an excerpt from Casta diva, a cavatina from Bellini’s Norma, first produced in 1831.

NFSA title: 321750

1964 I’ll Never Find Another You — The Seekers

Folk W&G WG-S 2334

After some success in the Melbourne folk clubs and an LP on W&G Records, The Seekers set sail on a cruise ship (employed as entertainers) in early 1964 as a way of getting to the UK. Within a few months they had been signed to Columbia Records and recording at Abbey Road Studios. Their first single for Columbia was I’ll Never Find Another You, written by Tom Springfield (brother of Dusty) released in December 1964. By February it was No. 1 on the British and Australian charts and reached No. 4 on the American charts. They were the first Australian group to have a top five hit on all three charts at the same time, and the single eventually sold 1.75 million copies.

NFSA title: 261815
Audio: courtesy of EMI Records Ltd. Under licence from EMI Music Australia Pty Limited

1974 Living in the 70s — Skyhooks

Mushroom L35299

Skyhooks’ debut album was notable for having six of the ten tracks banned on commercial radio for drug and sex references, however You Just Like Me 'Cos I’m Good In Bed was the first song broadcast on the ABC’s new youth station 2JJ in January 1975. Regardless of the controversy it was the first successful Australian pop record to set songs in a local, suburban setting — as one writer has put it 'legitimising Australian songwriting’ with Balwyn, Carlton and Toorak mentioned in three of the song titles. The album entered the charts in October 1974, where it stayed in the top 100 for 54 weeks and was the best selling album in Australia in 1975. The best selling single from the album Horror Movie also reached No. 1 nationally.

NFSA title: 263933
Audio: courtesy of Warner Music Australia

1974 Cyclone Tracy, Darwin

Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. It is estimated that Cyclone Tracy killed 71 people, with at least 22 people lost at sea. Between 80 to 90 per cent of housing was destroyed and tens of thousands were left homeless. All public services –- communications, power, water and sewerage –- were severed. ABC and other journalists worked in adverse and difficult conditions to report on what had happened. Mike Hayes was the senior ABC journalist in Darwin at the time and his report, probably sent by ham radio a few days later, gives a touching picture of conditions in Darwin in the cyclone’s aftermath.

Audio: ABC reporter Mike Hayes, courtesy of ABC

1987 I Should Be So Lucky — Kylie Minogue

Mushroom K485

Recorded in London in October 1987, I Should Be So Lucky was the first of her hits with English producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. The song debuted at No. 90 on 9 January 1987, and went on to become one of the biggest selling singles of the year with sales of over 675 000. The song was simultaneously No. 1 in Australia and Britain and topped the charts in Germany, Finland, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, as well reaching the top five in Austria, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, France and New Zealand. The song reached No. 28 on the US charts. The song was originally released on 7-inch and 12-inch singles in at least six different mixes as well as several subsequent remixes over the years.

Read more about Kylie on australianscreen online.

NFSA title: 376096
Audio: courtesy Warner Music Australia

1987 Voss — Richard Meale

Marilyn Richardson, Geoffrey Chard, Australian Opera Chorus, Sydney Symphony Orchestra/Stuart Challender 1987 Philips 420928 2

Patrick White’s 1957 novel Voss was inspired by the tragedy of the German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who disappeared in 1848 attempting to cross Australia from the Darling Downs to the Swan River. Composer Richard Meale and librettist David Malouf were commissioned to write an opera based on White’s novel, which was produced by The Australian Opera, directed by Jim Sharman, and staged at the Adelaide Festival in 1986. The ABC recorded the production later that year which was released as a two CD set. As Roger Covell noted in the CD booklet, the opera 'passed the first test of a new work of musical theatre. It engaged the complete attention of belief of its conductor, producer and performers … For The Australian Opera it also represents a discovery of idiom.’

NFSA title 230032
Audio: courtesy of ABC Classics