What does Advance Australia Fair celebrate?

Advance Australia Fair celebrates the country's natural beauty, its people's labour and freedom, and its place as a young, multicultural nation in the southern hemisphere. The official lyrics consist of two verses, both written from the point of view of all Australians collectively speaking about their country.

The opening line, 'Australians all let us rejoice, for we are one and free', sets the tone. The phrase 'one and free' replaced the earlier 'young and free' on 1 January 2021, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Governor-General David Hurley proclaimed the change to better acknowledge the more than 60,000 years of Indigenous habitation that pre-date European settlement. The first verse goes on to celebrate Australia's golden soil, wealth for toil, beauty rich and rare, and boundless plains to share.

The second verse, less commonly sung at sporting events but performed in full at official ceremonies, refers to Australia's place 'beneath our radiant Southern Cross' and welcomes those 'who've come across the seas' to share the country's freedom and prosperity. This second verse is explicitly multicultural and welcoming of immigration, written into the official version when Prime Minister Bob Hawke approved a revised text in 1984.

The anthem deliberately avoids monarchy, war, and conflict, focusing instead on landscape, hard work, and inclusion. It is sung at the opening of Parliament, at citizenship ceremonies (where new citizens often sing it for the first time as Australians), at major sporting events, and on national days such as Australia Day and ANZAC Day. New citizens are expected to know the words of at least the first verse and to understand the values it expresses about the country they are joining.