‘The Misogyny Speech’ was a parliamentary speech delivered by Australian Labor Party Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 9 October 2012 in response to opposition leader Tony Abbott accusing her of sexism.

Over the months leading up to this speech, Gillard had been criticised by segments of the Australian media and some members of the Liberal-National Coalition opposition party with comments about her personal life, gender, appearance, marital status and not having children.

The speech was widely broadcast via radio and television, drawing on recordings produced by the Department of Parliamentary Services.

In 2020, readers of The Guardian Australia voted the speech the most unforgettable moment in Australian TV history.

‘Stayin' Alive’ by the Bee Gees is the lead song from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack, one of the best-selling albums in history. The song reached No. 1 in multiple countries including Australia, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands and the USA.

The band wrote the song in Paris. Robin Gibb recalls, ‘The subject matter of “Stayin' Alive” is actually quite a serious one; it's about survival in the streets of New York, and the lyrics actually say that’.

The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the turning point of the Bee Gees’ career, with both the film and soundtrack having a major cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene's mainstream appeal. The Bee Gees won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year.

The Bee Gees consisted of English-born brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. They formed the group in Australia in 1958. The Bee Gees released their first two studio albums and early singles here and had their first chart success in Australia with their 12^th single, ‘Spicks and Specks', in 1966.

The band returned to the UK in January 1967, when producer Robert Stigwood began promoting them to a worldwide audience.

The theme for the Australian soap opera Neighbours, as sung by Barry Crocker, is perhaps Australia’s best known television theme song, and one of the most recognised internationally.

The theme song was composed by Tony Hatch, with lyrics by Jackie Trent, and was originally recorded in 1985 by Crocker, who also recorded this version released by BBC Records in 1987.

Other artists to have performed the theme song since the long-running show first aired in 1985 include Greg Hind, Paul Norton and Wendy Stapleton, Janine Maunder, Sandra de Jong, Stephanie Angelini and Daniel Boys, Garth Ploog and Bonnie Anderson. Listen to Dame Edna Everage's version.

One online critic described the Neighbours song as a ‘perfect embodiment of suburban Australia’.

‘The Lord's Prayer’ is a pop-rock setting of the Christian prayer recorded in 1973 by Australian Catholic nun, Sister Janet Mead. Featuring music by Arnold Strals, it was the first Australian recording to sell 1 million records in the USA.

After reaching No. 3 on the Australian charts, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide. It climbed to the upper reaches of the pop charts in countries as diverse as Canada, Japan, Brazil, Germany and the United States. Mead donated her royalties from the recording's international sales to charity.

Mead (1937-2022) was a music teacher at two Adelaide Catholic Schools who pioneered the use of contemporary rock music in celebrating the Roman Catholic Mass. She began making professional recordings of her music for schools and churches in 1973.

With producer Martin Erdman, she recorded a version of the Donovan song ‘Brother Sun, Sister Moon’ for Festival Records. The rock arrangement of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ was initially intended for the single’s B-side.

The success of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ led to further music releases, but Mead resisted the call to continue her pop career, despite intense media interest. She withdrew from the public eye in the early 1980s to focus on her charitable work. Mead was named 2004 South Australian of the Year for her work over decades caring for the homeless.

Australia adopted decimal currency in 1966 following a major public awareness campaign that included television and radio advertisements featuring the characters of Dollar Bill and Mr Pound explaining decimal currency to Australians.

This radio recording features a catchy jingle, ‘Out with the Old and in with the New’, sung to the tune of the Australian folksong 'Click Go the Shears'. Featuring lyrics by Ted Roberts, it was voiced by actors Kevin Golsby as Dollar Bill and Ross Higgins as Mr Pound.

The decimal currency campaign was hugely successful with the public, with the character of Dollar Bill even inspiring a fan club.

During the 1988 bicentennial year, the Radio Redfern program played a pivotal role in informing and educating the public about First Nations responses to 200 years of colonisation. These recordings capture 17 hours of the Radio Redfern broadcast on Radio Skid Row (2RSR 88.9FM) during bicentenary protests on 26 January.

Radio Redfern was the main source of information for people wanting to join the protests. The Sydney march attracted more than 40,000 people and was the largest protest in the city since the Vietnam moratorium. The broadcast included interviews and music from First Nations artists.

In this clip, radio presenter Cheryl Rose interviews people on the day about their expectations for the day, their feelings about the march, and its importance for Aboriginal people.

Maureen Watson and her son, Tiga Bayles began broadcasting on 2SER in 1981 to bring local radio into the Redfern community. They subsequently moved to Radio Skid Row (2RSR) in 1984, where they set up the Radio Redfern program, producing 10 hours of programming a week. Operating out of a terrace house on Cope Street in Redfern, it expanded to 40 hours of programming per week until its closure in 1990.

During the 1988 bicentennial year, the Radio Redfern program played a pivotal role in informing and educating the public about First Nations responses to 200 years of colonisation. These recordings capture 17 hours of the Radio Redfern broadcast on Radio Skid Row (2RSR 88.9FM) during bicentenary protests on 26 January.

Radio Redfern was the main source of information for people wanting to join the protests. The Sydney march attracted more than 40,000 people and was the largest protest in the city since the Vietnam moratorium. The broadcast included interviews and music from First Nations artists.

In this clip, we hear from Chris Kirkbright, Registrar of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act. He talks to the philosophy of the protests, and why the arrival of white people in Australia meant hurt, suffering, disease and genocide for the Aboriginal people, rather than celebration; Aboriginal people would instead be celebrating the survival of their people on 26 January 1988.

Maureen Watson and her son, Tiga Bayles began broadcasting on 2SER in 1981 to bring local radio into the Redfern community. They subsequently moved to Radio Skid Row (2RSR) in 1984, where they set up the Radio Redfern program, producing 10 hours of programming a week. Operating out of a terrace house on Cope Street in Redfern, it expanded to 40 hours of programming per week until its closure in 1990.

During the 1988 bicentennial year, the Radio Redfern program played a pivotal role in informing and educating the public about First Nations responses to 200 years of colonisation. These recordings capture 17 hours of the Radio Redfern broadcast on Radio Skid Row (2RSR 88.9FM) during bicentenary protests on 26 January.

Radio Redfern was the main source of information for people wanting to join the protests. The Sydney march attracted more than 40,000 people and was the largest protest in the city since the Vietnam moratorium. The broadcast included interviews and music from First Nations artists.

In this clip, Tiga Bayles calls Charlie Watson in the Radio Redfern studio during the last musical performance of the rally at Hyde Park. Bayles is concerned by the arrival of a bus full of police. He describes the scene to Watson and then talks to a police officer and a sergeant. Bayles and Watson urge listeners to contact police liaison units and parliamentarians to help prevent police violence at Hyde Park.

Maureen Watson and her son, Tiga Bayles began broadcasting on 2SER in 1981 to bring local radio into the Redfern community. They subsequently moved to Radio Skid Row (2RSR) in 1984, where they set up the Radio Redfern program, producing 10 hours of programming a week. Operating out of a terrace house on Cope Street in Redfern, it expanded to 40 hours of programming per week until its closure in 1990.

‘The Drover’s Dream’ was the A-side on the first 10” 78 disc released by Australian revivalist bush band the Bushwhackers.

The record of ‘The Drover’s Dream’ / ‘Bullockies Ball’ was rushed out to shops just before Christmas in 1955, receiving widespread airplay and making the country music charts in Queensland. The record eventually sold 20,000 copies, a significant number for a new release by an independent record label.

The earliest published version of this bush song is under the title ‘The Visions of a Night Watch’, published by the Kadina and Wallaroo Times, a South Australian newspaper, on 25 December 1889.

The variant version sung by the Bushwhackers describes a drover on night watch who drifts asleep while looking after his sheep. He has fanciful dreams of Australian native animals playing music and dancing around, before waking to find the sheep have wandered off.

Initially named the Heathcote Bushwhackers, the band played a key role in Australia's folk revival of the 1950s. They performed from 1952 to 1957 and released six singles and two EPs through Wattle Records. The Bushwhackers also contributed to the cast recording of the Australian musical Reedy River.

The recording features Alan Scott on vocals. Other band members included Harry Kay, Cecil Grivas, John Meredith, Brian Loughlin, Chris Kempster, Jack Barrie and Alex Hood.

This is the earliest audio recording of an Australian Governor-General, a farewell message to Australia by Hallam Lord Tennyson.

The recording was made at the request of the Board of Governors of the Public Library of South Australia on the eve of Tennyson's return to England in 1904.

The speech highlights the growing strength of the newly federated states of Australia, and the ongoing individuality of each of the states within the union.

Tennyson was Governor of South Australia from 1899 to 1902 and the second Governor-General of Australia, from 1902 to 1904.

Originally recorded on a wax cylinder, the recording is now held by State Records of South Australia.

The live concert recording Horrie Dargie Concert received Australia’s first gold record when it sold 75,000 copies.

The recording was of a farewell concert on 18 November 1952 at Sydney’s Town Hall for the popular Horrie Dargie Harlequintet (more commonly known as the Horrie Dargie Quintet). Led by harmonica player Horrie Dargie, the band was about to embark on an overseas tour. The track excerpted here is 'The Death of Willie Dyer'.

The concert was recorded on Pyrox Wire Recorder, on a wire that was 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long and ran for one hour. Australian recordings were still being pressed on 78s in shellac, but microgroove LPs had just arrived and the 10″ LP (long play) record of Horrie Dargie Concert sold exceptionally well.

Horrie Dargie began his recording career in 1938. After winning Melbourne's 3KZ P&A Parade, he released his first single with Columbia. He moved to Sydney and formed the Rocking Reeds, releasing six more recordings before joining the army in 1941. He formed the quintet in Sydney after returning from service in New Guinea.

‘Digger’ was one of several wartime patriotic songs written and recorded by prolific singer-songwriter Jack Lumsdaine, and was released midway through the Second World War.

The song recalls the history of the Diggers of Gallipoli having ‘made Australia’s name’, before describing a soldier in a trench at the battlefront in Europe wistfully recalling iconic parts of his homeland back in Australia.

Popular songs like ‘Digger’ played an important role in motivating Australians and propagandising First and Second World War efforts. ‘Digger’ is also one of a group of songs considered to be from the birth of Australia’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’. It represents the rise of publishing local professional songwriters rather than the work of amateurs, which was the case during the First World War.

John (Jack) Lumsdaine (1895-1948) was one of Australia’s most prominent singers and songwriters of the first half of the 20^th century, well known for his topical and patriotic songs.

He worked for print music publishers Allans Music and J Albert and Sons after his First World War service, touring Australia and New Zealand to promote new works, including his own. He later worked as a composer, arranger and performer on the Tivoli vaudeville circuit, and as radio announcer for 2FC then 2GB.

He began his recording career in 1926 with Columbia in Sydney, with many of his songs also recorded by notable singers of the period such as Peter Dawson.