The Verse 1 of the original version was changed by deleting the words Australia's sons let us rejoice and replacing them with Australians all let us rejoice. The Committee also attempted to make them more inclusive. The National Australia Day Committee made further changes to the lyrics to make them gender neutral. The result is that, following the 1901 Federation version which replaced the third verse, the only surviving verses of the original compositions are remnants of the first and third verses. For example, Verse 2, which included the line Britannia rules the wave and Verse 4, which included the lines Britannia then shall surely know, Though oceans roll between, Her sons in fair Australia's land, Still keep their courage green, were removed. In this way, the 'Rule Britannia' references were removed. The first change was to reduce the original four verses written in 1878 and revised in 1901 by Dodds McCormick to two verses. The 1984 amendments were the most substantial changes made to the words of Advance Australia Fair since it was first written in 1878. The lyrics were further and very significantly modified by the ‘National Australia Day Committee’ (the predecessor to the present ‘National Australia Day Council’) as part of the process to replace God Save the Queen prior to official adoption of a further modified form of Advance Australia Fair as the National Anthem in 1984. The National Australia Day Committee had been appointed by the Fraser government in 1979 and comprised the fourteen members set out below in the Cabinet Minute dated 28 August 1979: This is was the last change to ‘Advance Australia Fair’ until about 77 years later, in 1984.ġ984 Twentieth century era modifications to replace ‘God Save the Queen.’ is indebted to the late Professor Stuart Blackie, of Edinburgh for improvement in last verse". The change was acknowledged as an ‘improvement’ by Peter Dodds MCormick, who noted " The author of this song. This was changed by Dodds McCormick at the suggestion of Professor Stuart Blackie to sing: Should foreign foe e'r sight our coast etc The last verse as written by Peter Dodds McCormick was originally sung as: From 1902 to 1910, the British Royal Navy embarked on a massive expansion to keep ahead of the Germans as the world prepared for war. It occurred against the backdrop of a naval arms race which had developed between Germany and Great Britain. He was a classical scholar at the University of Edinburgh. This change to the lyrics reinforced Australia’s commitment to Britain.
In about 1907, and prior to the death of Peter Dodds McCormick in 1916, changes were made to the last verse of ‘Advance Australia Fair’ by Professor Stuart Blackie. A replacement the third verse was composed and sung as:Ĭ1907 Modifications to Emphasize Commitment to Britain Shortly prior to 1901, Peter Dodds McCormick wrote a ‘Federation version’ to celebrate the birth of the new Commonwealth of Australia.
1901 Federation era modifications for the new Commonwealth of Australia
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