I Am Australian

I come from the dreamtime From the dusty red soil plains I am the ancient heart The keeper of the flames I stood upon the rocky shore I watched the tall ships come For forty thousand years I've been The first Australian I came upon the prison ships Bound down by iron chains I've worked the land Endured the lash And waited for the rains I'm a settler I'm a farmers wife On a dry and barren run A convict and a free man I became Australian I'm the daughter of a digger Who sought the mother load The girl became a woman On the long and dusty road I'm a child of the Depression I saw the good time come I'm a bushy, I'm a battler I am Australian We are one But we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We'll share a dream And sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian I'm a teller of stories I'm a singer of songs I am Albert Namatjira And I paint the ghostly gums I am Clancy on his horse I'm Ned Kelly on the run I'm the one who waltzed Matilda I am Australian I'm the hot wind from the desert I'm the black soil of the plain I'm the mountains and the valleys I'm the drowned and flooding rains I am the rock I am the sky The rivers when they run The spirit of this great land I am Australian We are one But we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We'll share a dream And sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian We are one But we are many And from all the lands on earth we come We'll share a dream And sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian I am, you are, we are Australian Yes, the power of the right lyrics and the right melody To help us collectively express something That's usually very private and we never talk about But some of that just makes us all feel, uh, feel pretty good There's a couple of other things that make us feel pretty good tonight, too Apart from, thank you, you're all here with us We just found out that today That the album and the video that we have out at the moment Well especially the album, really We know that the video has already gone But it was our 68 concert for the BBC in London in black and white And the soundtrack from it we released for this tour And we're delighted to tell you that this week It's just gone into the Top 20 at number twelve Can't keep a good group down, can you? So if anyone's bought it, thank you, if you're gonna buy it, double thank you No, we're thrilled and, uh The other thing that makes us feel good in a package of these next three songs Two in fact, I think, are on that video Because the second and the third songs you will certainly know They were B-Sides to two of our biggest ever hit singles And they got as much airplay as the singles themselves So we regard them as big hits, and you'll certainly know them The first song of the trio is a little bit different, 'cause it's one of those early songs We used to have a lot of fun with, because when we first sat down together We didn't know the verses to all these great gospel songs So we'd sing the chorus' in lusty fashion but we sorta had to be creative with the verses You'll get the drift, here's the song Quaintly entitled, "Let the Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me"