Forgotten verses of Advance Australia Fair we’d be embarrassed to sing today

SEXIST, brutal and unpatriotic. The forgotten verses of our national anthem are so scandalous we’d never dare sing them now.

IF THERE’S one tune we’re going to hear a lot of today, aside from the winner of the Triple J Hottest 100 of course, it’s the Australian national anthem.

With backs straight and heads held high, many of us will prepare to belt it out, only to suddenly realise we’ve forgotten every second word and therefore proceed to mumble our way through the thing. Apart from “girt by sea”. Everyone remembers that line even if no one quite understands what it means.

Despite this, Advance Australia Fair is one of our most beloved tunes. But the song we sing today is but a shadow of the original, written before Australia was even a nation.

Jessica Mauboy has belted out the national anthem on a fair few occasions, including this morning on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Image: Craig Greenhill

In those days the anthem was less an inclusive tune encouraging us to mutually toil in the golden soil and more a proclamation of the superiority of Great Britain. With a dash of xenophobia and a healthy dollop of sexism to boot. There’s even talk of a secret sixth verse that only rarely sees the light of day.

The original song was composed by Peter Dodds McCormick, initially called Amicus, Latin for friend.

First performed in Sydney on St Andrew’s Day, 1878, it predated federation by more than two decades but it would take until 1984 for it to overcome competition from Waltzing Matilda to officially replace God Save the Queen as the national song.

During that century of waiting, the more problematic lines were massaged into more appropriate language or dropped altogether. They may be gone, but not forgotten.

IT’S NOT REALLY ABOUT AUSTRALIA

While today’s second verse (I know two verses — who knew?) extols the virtues of our renowned land, the original verse was about a land many thousands of miles away. Captain Cook’s “true British courage bore him on” to our shores where he raised “old England’s flag” and sang “Britannia rules the wave”. In a candid moment of reflection the anthem does suggest the UK wasn’t all that after all, “with all her faults, we love her still”, but that moment of self-doubt swiftly passes. In fact, there are no less than nine stirring references to Britain, or its dominions, in the original song. Compare this to the full five verses of God Save the Queen, which mentions Britain but once.

Peter Dodds McCormick, who composed Advance Australia Fair in 1878.

IT’S A LITTLE BIT SEXIST

Originally, the anthem began “Australia’s sons let us rejoice”, and went on to refer to Australia’s “sons” twice more, including “Britannia’s sons” in “fair Australia’s land”. The only feminine reference is to Britain itself. At some point this blokiness was clearly seen as a bit awkward as the first line had “sons” removed changing to “Australians all, let us rejoice”.

IT HAS A DIFFICULT BOAT PEOPLE VERSE

While much of the original anthem was about Captain Cook’s arrival in Australian and the abundance of nature’s gifts he found, one verse that was a little more gung-ho. The fifth section of the song was essentially a challenge to anyone daring to come by sea to stay the heck away. Ignoring the fact, of course, that Cook himself was a foreigner who arrived by sea barely a century beforehand.

“Should foreign foe e’er sight our coast / or dare a foot to land,” the song thunders. “We’ll rouse our arms like sires of yore / to guard our native strand.”

So let that be a warning to you.

The alternative national anthem? Image: Glenn Barnes.

AND A SECRET MISSING VERSE

While sexism and bloodthirsty warnings were all par the course for the national anthem, it seems religion was beyond the pale with not a mention of God in the whole song. That is apart from a mysterious sixth verse which, from time-to-time, reveals itself. In 2011, a row erupted between the guardians of the anthem and some Christian schools who resurrected the verse, which proclaims “With Christ our head and cornerstone / We’ll build our nation’s might”.

Mr McCormick never wrote the verse, which also mentions heaven and the “master”, but to this day no one knows who did.

BUT, WHO’S MISSING FROM THE ANTHEM?

Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, of course. While the verses are full to the brim of the derring-do of the Brits as they set foot on Australia’s “boundless plains”, there is not a mention of the indigenous people who had been on those plains for quite some time and were no doubt a bit perturbed at all these foreigners turning up unannounced.

Unquestionably, today’s national anthem is an improvement on the original and at least marginally more inclusive.

So, in joyful strains then let us all sing, the current but definitely not the original sexist, warmongering and possibly evangelical version of, Advance Australia Fair.

Originally published as Forgotten verses of Advance Australia Fair we’d be embarrassed to sing today