Bizarre story behind Aussie classic Great Southern Land

Great Southern Land is an iconic tune celebrating Australia.

Released by Icehouse in 1982 and written by their charismatic frontman Iva Davies, the new wave track has become a certified classic over the years.

But Davies, 67, has now revealed that the band’s management were so bent on international success that the songwriter was supposed to pretend that the tune wasn’t about Australia at all.

‘The Australian cultural cringe was a thing then,’ Davies said in an interview with the  Herald Sun on Friday.

‘My manager wanted Icehouse to be perceived as an international band, not an Australian band and the last thing he wanted me to do was talk about it being a song about Australia.’

The song, which appeared on Icehouse’s second album ‘Primitive Man’ in 1982, includes the lyrics: ‘Anyone will tell you it’s a prisoner island, hidden in the summer for a million years.’ 

‘It was so obvious it was about Australia,’ Davies explains as the song hits its 40th anniversary.

Davies says that the band’s management were so bent on international success that the songwriter was supposed to pretend that the tune wasn’t about Australia at all

The band’s manager even went so far to suggest the lyrics were about Antarctica, or South America, or ‘an imaginary place,’ Davies says.

Eventually, the songwriter told his manager he couldn’t keep up the lie.

With its hypnotic beat and lyrics celebrating Australia’s rich and varied landscape, Great Southern Land caught the imagination of listeners, peaking at No. 5 on the charts.

‘My manager wanted Icehouse to be perceived as an International band, not an Australian band and the last thing he wanted me to do was talk about it being a song about Australia,’ Davies said. 

It reached a wider audience when it featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 box Aussie classic Young Einstein, which was a major box office hit.

Elsewhere in the chat, Davies recalls how he wrote the song after being inspired by a plane trip that crossed Australia’s vast red centre.

The rocker also claims that he was pressured to cut the song because its running time of five minutes and 15 seconds was deemed too long, when most singles were just three minutes at the time. 

The song, which appeared on Icehouse’s second album ‘Primitive Man’ in 1982, includes the lyrics: ‘Anyone will tell you its a prisoner island, hidden in the summer for a million years’ 

Davies refused and the song was played constantly on the radio as it rose up the charts.

Formed in 1977 as Flowers, Icehouse went on to sell more than three million albums in Australia and nine million internationally. They were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 2006.

The news comes ahead of an Icehouse Great Southern Land tour, with the band playing in Melbourne on November 19 at the Myer Music Bowl.

Formed in 1977 as Flowers, Icehouse went on to sell more than three million albums in Australia and nine million internationally. They were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 2006 

Brisbane will follow on November 26 at the Riverside.

In Sydney, Icehouse will appear on December 12 on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.

Ticket information can be found here. 

The news comes ahead of an Icehouse Great Southern Land tour