The Seekers - I Am Australian

I came from the dream-time

From the dusty red-soil plains

I am the ancient heart

The keeper of the flame

I stood upon the rocky shores

I watched the tall ships come

For forty thousand years I've been

The first Australian

I came upon the prison ship

Bowed down by iron chains

I bought the land, endured the lash

And waited for the rains

I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife

On a dry and barren run

A convict, then a free man

I became Australian

I'm the daughter of a digger

Who sought the mother lode

The girl became a woman

On the long and dusty road

I'm a child of the Depression

I saw the good times come

I'm a bushie, 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 Namatjira1

And I paint the ghostly gums

I'm Clancy on his horse

I'm Ned Kelly on the run

I'm the one who waltzed Matilda 2

I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert

I'm the black soil of the plains

I'm the mountains and the valleys

I'm the drought 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"

1. Albert Namatjira is an aboriginal painter2. Waltzing Matilda is a poem by Banjo Paterson written while he was in the Queensland Outback. The poem has been performed as a song by many Australians and is sometimes considered the unofficial anthem of Australia.