Almanac Music: Australian Place Name Songs
Signpost on Warrego Highway, Australia. 1 Aug 2009. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Australian Place Name Songs
This week, the theme in my ongoing series concerning popular songs is ‘Australian Place Name Songs’; in other words, any song highlighting an Australian place name is relevant, whether the name concerned makes up the title, part of the title, or is important in some other way.
As usual, readers are warmly encouraged to contribute their own song choices and comments.
‘The Sheik of Scrubby Creek’, written and performed by Chad Morgan (1952)
The signature song of Australian country music legend Chad Morgan is this ditty – a brief, amusing piece (replete with dog howls performed by Chad) that takes its title from where he was born: a rural locality called Scrubby Creek in Queensland.
‘Camooweal’, written by Mack Cormack and Slim Dusty, and performed by Slim Dusty (1971)
This song is a plaintive, country-flavoured ballad about lost love and regret, set in the small Queensland outback town of Camooweal, close to the Queensland / New South Wales border. It originally appeared on Dusty’s album Songs from the Land I Love.
‘The Goondawindi Grey’ written by Nev Hauritz and Brian Wallace, performed by Tex Morton (1973)
A song about a famous Australian racehorse, as many would know, this country number was a big late-career hit for Tex Morton. Goondawindi is a Queensland town where the horse’s owners lived. The town’s name was derived from an Aboriginal word.
‘Wedding Cake Island’, written by Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey performed by Midnight Oil (1980)
This lovely, melodic instrumental has a particularly Australian ‘sea and surf’ feel, and is one of the Oil’s earliest recordings. It first appeared on the band’s Bird Noises EP. Wedding Cake Island itself is little more than a rocky outcrop, located about one kilometre southeast of Coogee Beach, New South Wales.
‘Bow River’ written by Ian Moss, performed by Cold Chisel (1982)
This heavy rocking Ian Moss / Cold Chisel number, from their album Circus Animals, was, according to Wikipedia, ‘written about a sheep station in the Northern Territory where his [Ian’s] brother Peter had once worked’. Bow River, as in the actual river, is located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and, according to a different Wikipedia entry ‘is the subject of the famous song of the same name by the iconic Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel.’ There you have it; in a loose sense, both versions can be true, I suppose, as the station seems to be named after the river.
‘From St Kilda to Kings Cross’, written and performed by Paul Kelly (1985)
This tender rock song, the only single from Kelly’s first solo album Post, involving inner suburbs of Melbourne (St Kilda) and Sydney (King’s Cross), is as much a love letter to the former as anything else:
‘I want to see the sun go down from St Kilda Esplanade
Where the beach needs reconstruction, where the palm trees have it hard
I’d give you all of Sydney Harbour (all that land, all that water)
For that one sweet promenade.’
‘Fitzroy Crossing’, written by Neil Murray, performed by Warumpi Band (1985)
This well-known Australian country and Aboriginal band released the bluesy country-rock ‘Fitzroy Crossing (named after a place in the Kimberley part of Western Australia) on their debut studio album, Big Name, No Blankets.
‘Cootamundra Wattle’, written and performed by John Williamson (1986)
This poetic, superbly-crafted country song, from Williamson’s Mallee Boy album, is centred upon the wonders of the natural world, and gets its name from Cootamundra, a town in New South Wales. There is such a flowering plant as the Cootamundra wattle, too.
‘Flash Jack from Gundagai’, traditional, performed by The Bushwackers (1994 live)
A traditional folk song about a shearer from a New South Wales town, this piece will be familiar to many Australians. It mentions many country locations, too, like Burrabogie, Toganmain, Big Willandra, the Coleraine, and One Tree Plain. (Note: of course, like many traditional songs, there’s some variation in the lyrics of different versions.) Quite a few acts have recorded it over the years. I recall learning it at school, most likely from a radio music show we listened to in the classroom.
‘Nullabor Song’, written and performed by Kasey Chambers (2001)
This gentle country ballad, from Chambers’ Barricades & Brickwalls album, possesses a strong sense of place, and is both evocative and full of tender feeling. The Nullabor Plain stretches between South Australia and Western Australia, in close proximity to the Great Australian Bight.
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So, dear readers – over to you. Your responses to this topic are most welcome. Please add your own choice of a song (or songs) concerning the ‘Australian Place Names’ topic in the comments section, along with anything else you’d like to say.
[Note: Wikipedia has been a good general reference for this piece, particularly when it comes to checking dates and other details.]
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
I’ll open the batting KD
Elizabeth City Riots – The Accountant$
Adelaide – Paul Kelly
Somewhere in Sydney – Skyhooks
Somewhere in a Bar in Adelaide – Skyhooks
Carlton (Lygon St Limbo) – Skyhooks
Balwyn Calling’ – Skyhooks
Tojo – Hoodoo Gurus
‘Along the Road to Gundagai’ – by many
‘I’ve Been Everywhere’ -Oz version
Love these Kevin
My uncle Ian Bidge Boyd is a Country & Western Singer and made two CDs.
One was called Among the Lakes & Craters which was about Camperdown. He also did a song about his school days at Weerite called A Weerite student.
Thanks for opening, Swish – an interesting bunch of songs by a fine bunch of artists!
Hi Col – a couple of classics from you. I wonder how many Australian place names were mentioned in Lucky Starr’s rendition of ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’. (I won’t count ’em now.)
Oh, and another small thing, Swish, the title of the Skyhooks song is ‘Sitting In A Bar In Adelaide’ (of course, we’re all subject to occasional typos).
Thanks for your comments, Rodney – interesting material about your uncle.
I reckon so many Australia small towns (as well as bigger places) have had songs written about them, more than most people realise – I hope we uncover many of these songs in this comments section.
Take Me Back to Inamincka – John Vincent and Fahrenheit 451 (A very niche one I think. You have to be from Adelaide and of a certain age. Later covered by Greg Champion)
Wangaratta Wahine – Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band – (“ But most of all I remember her husband Craig ….
About six-foot-six, broad shoulders, what a wacker)
Streets of Forbes – Weddings Parties Anything
Thanks for these excellent selections, Paul.
I just checked out ‘Take Me Back to Inamincka’ – good fun. It sounds like something Greg Champion would do. The other songs you mentioned are classics, in my opinion.
I stand corrected KD.
Also
Adelaide – Ben Folds
Came From Adelaide – Greg Champion (a riff on I’ve Been Everywhere – the ultimate Oz place name song)
One More Boring Night In Adelaide – Redgum
Beaumont Rag – Redgum
Toorak Cowboy – Skyhooks
Brisbane (Security City) – Saints
Wollongong The Brave – Norman Gunston
My City of Sydney – XL Capris/Tommy Leonetti
Grand Junction Road – Don Morrison (one for Mickey Randall)
Another excellent themed piece KD, it’s my sort of Wordle!
I’m going to start with Camooweal and yes, I know it’s in your list of examples but hell, it is also my favourite Slim song so let it be stated twice!
Also, to be clear I’ve Been Everywhere is an Australian song that US country singers appropriated. It’s a great song whatever locations are being reeled off.
As for additional titles:
Bicton vs Brooklyn, Dave Warner
Looking Down at You, Innocent Bystanders
Jerdacuttup Man, The Triffids
John Wayne visits Port Augusta, Not Drowning, Waving
Hipster Bogan, The Cartridge Family
Depreston, Courtney Barnett
Just thought of another one KD from a very Melbourne centric band:
‘My Brown Yarra’ – The Whirling Furphies.
Many thanks for the additional material, Swish. Great stuff. Adelaide, for some reason, seems to provoke songs, often having a go at it in some fashion.
Thanks so much for your contribution, Rick. I’ll have to look up some of them. Glad you gave ‘Depreston’ a run – to my way of thinking, it’s a modern classic.
And yes, I was aware of the origins of ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’.
Finally, ‘Camooweal’- oh yes, what a beauty!
Thanks again, Col.
‘My Brown Yarra’ – I will certainly check it out.
Perth is a Culture Shock, The Victims
Highway to Hell, ACDC
African Summer, Dave Warner
Sydney from a 727, Paul Kelly
Maralinga, Paul Kelly
Down City Streets, Archie and Ruby (everyone knows it’s about Fitzroy)
Thanks once more, Rick.
.Of course, songs – especially ‘place songs’ – are such an important way for a culture to map its land and existence.
Departures (Blue Toowong Skies) – Bernard Fanning
Perth is a culture shock – The Victims
African Summer – Dave Warner from The Suburbs
Under the Clocks – WPA
Sorrento Moon – Tina Arena
Sgt Small – WPA
Another excellent collection Kev cheers
Thanks, IW, for your material. Love it.
And yes, meeting ‘under the clocks’ at Flinders Street Station – what a Melbourne thing to do!
This is the kind of discussion where I’m very keen to see what comes next.
Another great concept KD. I’ve now plenty of ammo for Spotify on this Friday afternoon.
Whatever people make of ‘The Sheik of Scrubby Creek’ by Chad Morgan, I often think of him writing that as a seventeen-year-old and dining out on it across the following seven decades. How amazing is that? How many of us can claim any positive longevity from anything we did at seventeen?
Hi Mickey. Glad you like what’s going on in this discussion.
Regarding ‘The Sheik of Scrubby Creek’, it always makes me think of my paternal grandfather, a rural bloke, who, after he’d had a few, would start singing traditional ballads, and songs involving ‘dog howls’ and the like.
Townsville, The Necks
The Applecross Wing Commander, You Am I
Three Rivers Hotel, Slim
Melbourne Song, Colin Hay
Swan St Swagger, Courtney Barnett
Mighty Clarence River, Archie Roach
Drinkin in Port Lincoln, Cold Chisel
Orpheus Beach, The Go-Betweens
To Her Door, Paul Kelly
Tenterfield Saddler, Peter Allen
Don’t Go To Sydney, The Zimmermen
Gundagai, Red Hot Poker Dots
Footscray, Billy Miller
Been There, Done That – Greg Champion.
Steely Dan’s “Black Friday” famously songcheck’s Muswellbrook.
One of my favourite Recovery songs is Jason Isbell’s “New South Wales” about touring with Justin Townes Earle and a night of carousing. The wreckage of the night was a turning point for Jason getting sober and he still is 11 years later. Sadly Justin couldn’t stay the journey. RIP. Something lost. Something gained.
The Star of the West by The Dead Livers – This is a song about a night drinking at the Port Fairy Pub owned by retired Collingwood Footballer Ron Wearmouth in the early eighties.
Let The Franklin Flow by Gordon Franklin and the Wilderness Ensemble a protest song written about the Franklin Dam by Shane Howard and performed and recorded by musicians appearing at The Stop the Drop Concert in early 1983 including some members of Redgum and Midnight Oil
Razor’s Edge by Goanna. One of my favourite Shane Howard songs, counter culture life in the early eighties, name checks Torquay, Byron Bay Queensland.
Have you ever been to see KINGS CROSS by the great Frankie Davidson.
Rick – thanks for your further additions – this ‘songs about place’ discussion is certainly yielding many riches.
Your inclusion of Archie’s ‘Clarence River’ serves as a reminder that the great man could really rock when he was inclined to do so. I remember seeing him live in the Wool Exchange in Geelong in the late nineties (or thereabouts) and he did a more up-tempo, rocking version of ‘Native Born’, compared to the one on the Charcoal Lane album – it left a lasting impression upon me.
Hi McAlmanac (love the nom be plume) – thanks for your three songs. I’ll single out Billy Miller’s highly evocative ‘Footscray’ – what a beautiful gem.
HI Daryl – thanks for this Champs number – perhaps he’s always been underrated as a songwriter and performer.
Hi PB. Thank you for these two wonderful – and musically quite different – songs. Fine additions to the overall list.
Hi Dave N – great little bunch of songs. ‘Razor’s Edge’ would definitely be in my top couple of Goanna numbers.
Hi Fisho. Another good ‘un for the list.
As I posted on FB, Auntie Jack’s version of “I’ve been everywhere” (ie. only Wollongong and Dapto lol)
Also Bob Hudson’s “The Newcastle Song”
Both 70s ‘classics’
Stars of Warburton (Midnight Oil)
Warakurna (Midnight Oil)
Dreamworld (Midnight Oil, mentions the Breakfast Creek Hotel is up for sale)
The Diamantina Drover (Redgum)
Brisbane Ladies (Australian folk song)
Reckless (Australian Crawl, mentioning the Manly Ferry cuts its way to Circular Quay)
‘Brunswick’, ‘A tale they won’t believe (Hobart Town)’, ‘Rossarden’, ‘Lights of Devonport’, ‘Taylor Square’, ‘Walkerville’, ‘The Ghosts of Walhalla’, by Weddings Parties Anything
‘Tarrilup Bridge’ by The Triffids
‘Star Hotel’ by Cold Chisel
‘Parramatta Gaol 1843’, ‘Lear jets over Kulgera’, ‘Yarralumla Wine’, ‘Diamintina Drover’, ‘Gladstone Pier’ by Redgum
‘South Australia’ by The Pogues
‘Melbourne’ by The Whitlams
‘Melbourne’ by the DMAs
‘Old Fitzroy’ by Dan Sultan
‘Charcoal Lane’ by Archie Roach
and the big one:
‘Australiana’ by Austen Tayshus
Hi Derek B. Many thanks for your 70s classics. To select the second one for comment – Bob Hudson’s humorous and wonderfully sharp ‘Newcastle Song’ should be honoured in a national musical archive, if it isn’t already.
I think of Bob Hudson a little like Dave Warner, before Dave Warner was Dave Warner!
Thank you, Liam – what a fine little selection you’ve put forward.
This ‘Australian Place Names’ discussion certainly highlights how bands such as Midnight Oil have mapped the country through songs.
What an interesting and impressive collection, Smokie – thanks so much.
And what a great way to round it off, with ‘Australiana’, another song/spoken word recording that deserves a place in our national archives.
Here’s a few extra for you
Cruel Sea – this is not the way home (Broken Hill)
Strange Tenants – Grey Skies over Collingwood
Weddings Parties Anything – Sisters of a mercy (Melbourne), woman of Ireland (Fitzroy), scorn of the women (Laverton)
Hunters & Collectors – Inside a Fireball (Broken Hill)
Cheers Wippet
Thanks Wippet!
Some beauties you’ve chosen here.
To single out out one – ‘Grey Skies Over Collingwood’ . Strange Tenants brings back memories, of a band that began around the time I was a teenager playing in a pub band myself.
From the Don Morrison album It’s A Long Drive
Grand Junction Road
Kensington Road
Hay Plains Blues
Neil Murray
Good Light in Broome (and there is whistling too)
My Island Home
Menindee
Dan Sultan – Kimberley Calling
Jeff Lang
Batemans Bay
Ravenswood
Ref PB’s comment. We attended the amazing Justin Townes Earle/Jason Isbell gig in the brilliant little theatre in Milton, NSW and I reckon it could have been the night it all panned out for Jason Isbell.
also, on community radio I once heard a song A Hundred Smokes to Kununurra (or similar title).
Would love to know the group and find it again.
Thanks, Peter C, for this excellent contribution – there’s lots to appreciate here.
‘100 Smokes to Kununurra’ by Roadtrippers is accessible via YouTube.
To continue, Peter C, you’ve reminded me, indirectly, that Slim Dusty sang a song called ‘Cunnamulla Feller’, written by Stan Coster.
Kununurra (‘100 Smokes to Kununurra’) is in Western Australia, while Cunnamulla is in Queensland.
My limited music knowledge and the search engine dredged up two Bernard Bolan songs from the seventies:
Rose Bay Ferry and the Toorak Tram (on a Friday Night)
Hi Peter. Thanks for these quirky, humorous songs – certainly something out of left field. They remind me a bit of Bernard Cribbins’ ‘Right Said Fred’.
“(I Go To) Werribee” by TISM
“Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder” by Alex Lahey
“A Balcony in Surry Hills” by Catherine Traicos
“Bellarine Ballerina” by The Murlocs
Kosciuszko
Gadigal land
Section 5 (Bus to Bondi)
Burnie
Tarkine
The Barka-Darling River
The great gibber plain
====>> midnight oil
Thanks, Luke, for this particularly interesting batch of Oz place name songs. I’ll single out ‘(I Go To) Werribee’ by TISM for attention – any song that has as its opening line ‘I ain’t no Greco-Roman wrestler but I still love you, baby’ has my immediate, undivided attention!
A big ‘thank you’ to you, David, for this collection of Midnight Oil Australian place name songs. This band is certainly a national treasure.
Only one from me as a lot of territory already covered.
Alamein Train by Pete Best Beatles.
Thanks, Frank, you’ve picked an amusing, rollicking beauty – so Melbourne, too!
Some late starters and a plug!
Melbourne, You’re My Town by Eugene Hamilton and the Money (who incidentally are playing at the Kindred in Footscray on Friday night)
This Town by Flying Emus
Murray River by The T-Bones
Shadows on the Hill, Troy Cassar-Daley
Rick’s mention of This Town by the Flying Emus reminded me of another song with a similar name.
This Town (Will Survive) by Broderick Smith came out in 1992 on his album Suitcase. It doesn’t specifically mention Melbourne, but the lyrics make it clear that it is a defence of Melbourne from the attacks of Jeff Kennett and the Herald Sun in the run-up to the 1992 State Elections. Broderick Smith wrote some terrific songs and was one of the best male voices in Australian R&B and Country music.
While I’m at it…..
Westgate by Mark Seymour, an excellent song about the Westgate Bridge disaster written many years after the tragedy. At the time the bridge fell there were several songs written by folk singers, including Don Henderson, Phyl Lobl and Ken Mansell.
Showtime by Cold Chisel, from the Breakfast at Sweethearts album namechecks “Townsville sugar sunsets” and is a song about an ageing disillusion pub singer. I suspect it was inspired a real musician but you would have to ask Don Walker who he had in mind.
Thanks again, Rick – more musical ‘riches’ for we listeners to mine.
And thank you Dave for your additional material. I remember Brod Smith giving me a phone call in the early eighties (around the time I was playing in a pub band) about some songs I’d sent him – he seemed like a really sincere, good guy.