The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular (original soundtrack) lyrics for the country songs. Lee Kernaghan also sang some of the country songs which he had already recorded on some of his albums, during the concert scene. The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular (original soundtrack) All poetry narrated in the musical was written by Banjo Paterson, including ""Waltzing Matilda"" (for which the music was written by M. Cowan). Bruce Rowland, who composed the instrumental music for both the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River film and its sequel 1988 film The Man from Snowy River II (American title: "Return to Snowy River"), composed special arrangements of some
Waltzing Matilda their celebrations for the Australian Bicentenary. One of the platinum awards was for Paterson and Cowan's version of "Waltzing Matilda". The song has never been the officially recognised national anthem in Australia. Unofficially, however, it is often used in similar circumstances. The song was one of four included in a national plebiscite to choose Australia's national song held on 21 May 1977 by the Fraser Government to determine which song was preferred as Australia's national anthem. "Waltzing Matilda" received 28% of the vote compared with 43% for "Advance Australia Fair", 19% for "God Save the Queen" and 10% for "Song