Jack Lumsdaine wrote and recorded Canberra’s Calling to You in 1938, the sesquicentenary of European settlement. In 1938 Canberra was little more than a few suburbs to the north of the Civic Centre and another couple east and west of Parliament House. Lumsdaine was a prolific songwriter and performer on both the vaudeville circuit and on radio and is also remembered for Every Day is a Rainbow for Me, which featured Don Bradman accompanying him on piano.