Australia - 1851

James Pitt-Payne, London and Ian Cousins, Opera Australia - 27 Jan 2002

O'er many a foamy billow,
Across the distant main,
There is a land of plenty
Victoria is its name!
And rightly was it christen'd thus
On an auspicious day;
It took the name of England's Queen,
To whom we homage pay

O'er many a foamy billow,
Across the distant main,
There is a land of plenty
Victoria is its name!
Victoria, Victoria,
Victoria is its name!

Of honor'd title worthy
Is this new home of thine,
Disclosing verdant pastures
With treasures of the mine;
Where many a bold and honest heart
Has come from far to learn
Endurance mostly borne by those
Who would a fortune earn.

O'er many a foamy billow,
Across the distant main,
There is a land of plenty
Victoria is its name!
Victoria, Victoria,
Victoria is its name!

Mid'st happy homes of freedom,
Exulting voices sing,
From east to west they're sounding,
And thus the echoes ring
Oh! land of our adoption thou
Shalt each one Patriot make,
And with our lives the right defend
Australia for thy sake!

O'er many a foamy billow,
Across the distant main,
There is a land of plenty
Victoria is its name!
Victoria, Victoria,
Victoria is its name!

The colony and state of Victoria provided the impetus for the Commonwealth of Australia and the basic institutions of national life. The pastoral wealth of Victoria, then the gold rush, the mercantile enterprises that followed created a society of remarkable capacity....The rapid advances of democracy made us a social laboratory. Victoria and Melbourne were the vanguard of the nation." (Professor Stuart Macintyre, Chair of the History Council)

Victoria's separation from New South Wales occurred in 1851.

"On Monday 11 November 1850 a Port Melbourne publican galloped his coach over Prince's Bridge blowing a trumpet, waving the Union Jack and shouting, "Hooray! We've got Separation at last."

The Port Phillip District was to be freed from the "tyranny" of New South Wales, and Her Majesty the Queen had graciously allowed her name to be conferred on the new colony. The newspapers came out with headlines in monumental type; almost every shop window carried emblems and decorations, blazing tarbarrels were rolled down Collins Street, and fireworks were expended, while the happy crowd sang and shouted itself hoarse; a Separation Anthem was sung with ragged gusto. Throughout the District the news was celebrated of the foundation of the colony, which was not formally to be proclaimed for another seven months."
(From Geoffrey Serle : The Golden Age. A History of the Colony of Victoria 1851 1861. MUP (1963)

The words of the Anthem could be sung to 'Rule Britannia' posted recently

Soft karaoke
Words
synth str 1 treble
synth str 1 bass
synth str 1 mid range
fr hrn
Lyric Line
brass
pizz str
*
Australia 1851
aka Victoria - A Federal Song
Music by J. L. Hatton (1808-1886)
Poetry by Planchette
out of copyright
sequence by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
and Ian Cousins, Opera Australia
completed Sunday 27 Jan 2002 at 13.26
in association with Doug Grierson
*