Australian country music link Australia's vast distances. Isolation and loneliness of life in the Australian bush has been another theme. For much of its history, Australia's bush music belonged to an oral and folkloric tradition, and was only later published in print in volumes such as Banjo Paterson's "Old Bush Songs", in the 1890s. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential early Australian country song, influenced more by Celtic folk ballads than by American Country and Western music. The lyrics were composed by the poet Banjo Paterson in 1895. This strain of Australian country music, with lyrics focusing
Anzacs (TV series) Rowland composed the original music for the series which also popularised many old marching songs of the period. The classic Australian song 'Waltzing Matilda' is heard at several points as is 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'. Several songs from the satirical musical 'Oh, What a Lovely War!' were also used, including the title song, 'I wore a tunic', 'The bells of Hell' and other period numbers, like 'If you were the only girl' and 'keep the home fires burning' – which were performed by various actors. A 45-minute cassette tape of the soundtrack, entitled "ANZACS : original soundtrack from