Caroline Carleton's "Song of Australia" poem won the contest conducted by the
Gawler Institute with a prize of ten
guineas, and was published in the
South Australian Register. The second phase was a contest to compose the melody for the song, and lodge it with the judges within little more than a week. It was stipulated that entrants were not to identify themselves. Of the twenty-three entries, Herr Linger's tune (submitted under the pseudonym "One of the Quantity") was announced as the winner on 4 November 1859, the prize again being ten guineas (thousands of dollars in today's values). The song was used in South Australian schools and elsewhere, and a popular gramophone recording was made by
Peter Dawson in 1933. Sir
Bernard Heinze is reported as much preferring Linger's composition to "
Advance Australia Fair", which has been criticised as derivative of the German folk song "The Polish Inn". In 1887
W. B. Chinner (son of one of the judges) wrote a choral arrangement of the Song with piano accompaniment, which became popular. The "Song of Australia" was one of four candidates for a National Song put to a
plebiscite in 1977 and was the least favourite in every State except South Australia. ==Notes==