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If you could press play on Australia, what would you hear?
This week, the National Film and Sound Archive has added nine more iconic sounds to its permanent collection, and they range from the deeply moving to the flat-out hilarious.
We’re unpacking the 2026 inductees, including the viral 'succulent Chinese meal' arrest, Missy Higgins’ breakout hit ‘Scar’, and the pedestrian crossing 'beep' that ended up in a Billie Eilish song.
Plus, we look back at the powerful 2015 Australian of the Year speech by Rosie Batty and the jingle that ensured no Aussie would ever forget the number 1300 655 506.
Claire Murphy joins us to travel through the sonic history of the country and find out what really makes a sound 'quintessentially Australian'.
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Hosts: Taylah Strano & Claire Murphy
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I'm on my media podcast.
Okay, pop quiz.
What did this iconic speech?
I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man.
I will not.
And this jingle have in common.
Well, they're both quintessentially Australian.
Sounds, speeches and jingles that have shaped life here down under.
This week, the National Film and Sound Archive have just added nine more iconic Aussie sounds to the list.
Today, Claire Murphy is here with me to unpack them all.
It's the quickie for Wednesday, April 1, I'm Taylor Strano.
Here's Claire now with the latest news headlines.
Thanks, Taylor, and Inquest will reconstruct the final moments of fugitive Desi Freeman's life in detail
for a coroner to determine the circumstances around his death.
The 56-year-old was fatally shot by police on a remote property in Thola Galong near Woolworth
on the Victorian New South Wales border on Monday after a months-long manhunt.
As one of the nation's largest searches concludes,
a coroner will take over the investigation and look into the circumstances surrounding the seven-month period.
Freeman was wanted over the fatal shootings of Neil Thompson and Vadim Duarte-Hottart,
officers who are among a team of police serving a warrant at his poor punker home in late August.
Families hoping to get away over Easter are unlikely to get cheaper petrol before the long weekend,
while regional people could be waiting weeks for relief.
The federal government cut wholesale fuel prices by 26 cents a litre in a bid to head off the worst economic effects of the war in Iran.
But the change would not be felt straight away,
because service stations still need to sell all their older, higher-taxed fuel stock before bringing in the cheaper fuel.
That process would likely take anything from a day or two for high turnover metro stations
to two or more weeks for some regional areas.
A giant trans flag, the largest in the world, has been unfurled in Brisbane
with trans and gender diverse advocates protesting the Queensland government's restrictions to gender-affirming health care.
The flag which took 30 people 10 days to sow and measures 40 metres by 20 metres
was revealed on international trans day visibility
to protest Queensland State Government policy
that has seen them become the first to ban hormone treatments for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Under the ban, hormone therapies are no longer accessible to new patients aged under 18.
Trans Justus, my engine member, Jodie Hall, the group behind the flag,
said trans people deserve access to the things we need to live a good life
and part of that is access to health care that gives us freedom to live our lives like everyone else.
Golfo Tiger Woods told authorities he was looking at his phone and didn't realise the truck in front of him had slowed
before his roll over crash in Florida last week.
According to the police report, Woods had two hydrocodone pills in his pocket
and officers observed him to be lethargic, slow, sweating profusely
with eyes that were bloodshot and glassy with pupils that were extremely dilated.
When asked during the criminal DUI investigation if he took any prescription medication,
the report said the 50-year-old golfer replied,
I take a few while adding he'd done so earlier in the morning.
Woods was arrested last Friday on a charge of driving under the influence
after his land rover rolled on a two-lane road near his Jupiter Island home,
having travelled at high speeds and clipping the truck.
He was released on bail later that night, known was injured in the crash.
According to Royal Sources, Princesses, Beatrice and Yusine,
the daughter of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, will not be at the Royal Family's Easter Church service.
Mountbatten Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles,
was arrested in February by police on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Andrew, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and the pair's daughters attended the Easter service
at Windsor Castle last year, a traditional annual gathering for the family.
But Royal Sources says the Princesses would not be there this Sunday,
adding it was their decision not Charles's.
Thanks Claire, next.
What does Australia sound like?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island listeners
are advised that this episode may contain audio of deceased persons.
If you could press play on Australia, what would you hear?
The National Film and Sound archive has been working hard to compile
the great Australian mixtape, not its official name,
but a collection of all the sights and sounds that have shaped life here,
from way back in the 1890s right up to today.
There are nearly 700,000 unique works in there,
adding up to around 7 million items, both physical and digital,
and it just keeps growing every single year.
From the old telly shows you grew up on,
to the movies everyone still quotes, award-winning songs,
and moments from the pop culture canon they're all accounted for.
Which brings us nicely to 2026,
nine more pieces of Aussie history have been added to the archive,
and Claire Murphy is here to talk through the list with us.
I'm so excited to talk about this.
I love talking about sounds.
As someone who's been in radio and now podcast for my entire career,
sounds are so important.
They can do so many things. They can create memories.
They can take you back in time.
They can make you feel things.
I love this so much.
I love this too. I love that we have this Australian collection
in the National Film and Sound archive,
and every year we're just taking down memory lane
within the editions.
So there are nine new editions in 2026.
Do you want to kick us off with the first one?
Yes, I do, because for those of you who own You Know Marsha Hines
for her being a judge on a talent show,
back in the day, she was Australia's Queen of Disco.
Yes.
And in 1977, she released this song.
It's called You.
Something very special about you.
It became Marsha Hines biggest hit, unsurprisingly.
Disco was massive in 1977,
and this just hit the sweet spot.
Marsha's vocals are fabulous.
It had all of the elements that 1977 Australia needed.
Only made it to number two on the charts, which is interesting.
It's such a moment in Australian time,
and it kind of legitimized us as a musical strength
because Marsha's American,
and she gave it kind of this legitimacy.
It was written by an American songwriter,
but she's quintessentially Australian.
Yeah.
Also on this list, Claire, another song.
So the entirety of the list and the archive
is not all just music,
but I do want to talk about another track
that did make its way into the archive this year.
It's actually pretty recent.
When we think about archives,
our mind extends back quite far.
But I want to take you to 2004
to this iconic piano riff.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
The way things grew again.
Yeah, a little bit of Missy Higgins.
Yeah.
Some scar.
It takes us to such a time
for those of us who are of a certain age,
because we're talking, this is peak emo years.
2004.
We're all a little bit sad for whatever reason.
We had no idea what was coming.
They could potentially make us even sadder.
But in fact, then, that music really spoke to our souls
and Missy Higgins went for the jugular band.
She's got several songs like this,
which just rip your heart out and stomp all over it.
Yeah, ironically, this song is about being in the industry
for a little while and people try to reshape
and reformat what it is that you do.
And for some reason, that was really relatable
to everybody who was not trying to be a pop star
in nearly 2000s Australia.
It's also a woman who is writing her own music.
She is a musician.
She's playing that piano.
It recently in an awards ceremony,
like that song still hits, man.
And it continues to do so you're right.
So it actually clocked up at number four in Triple J's,
hottest 100 of Australian songs last year.
And during the year that it was released 2004,
it came at number two.
So it was very much an year warm of the next time.
Speaking about tearing our hearts out,
this next bit of audio that is going into the sound archive this year
comes from a 2015.
But in order to explain it, we need to go a year back.
Because in 2014, Rosie Batty was at a cricket match
with her son Luke.
He was just 11 years old when her ex partner and Luke's dad
arrived at the scene and in a horrific moment
of family violence killed Luke and then took his own life.
And at that moment,
this really thrust domestic violence
into the headlines and spotlight,
like we'd never really seen before,
it was still very behind closed doors its family business.
This was national headlines.
It was so shocking that everyone in the country
kind of came to a halt and was like,
how could this have happened in this public place?
Lesson a year later, Rosie Batty was made Australian
of the year and she gave this speech on being handed her award.
I am truly honored.
I would like to dedicate this award to my beautiful son, Luke.
Here's the reason I have found my voice
and I'm able to be heard.
Whilst we celebrate the wonderful country
that we live in today,
there remains a serious epidemic across our nation.
No matter where you live,
family violence exists in every pocket of every neighbourhood.
It does not discriminate
and it is across all sections of our society.
It is so deeply moving and devastating
and I wish there was a world
wouldn't a universe a reality when this never happens.
But Rosie Batty has opened that conversation
and that dialogue up for so many Australians
who either didn't know of sort of the extent
of domestic violence in Australia
or were being introduced to it for the first time.
She did speak to other victim survivors
and their children in that message.
One thing that was really interesting is she spoke to men
and said that we need you,
like you're part of this conversation,
we need you to help us end family violence.
And I think that's when people started to go,
hang on a minute, this isn't women's business.
This isn't something that women should be dealing with
or fighting against or trying to not become victims of.
Men are part of this conversation too
and she made that really clear.
It's very interesting for someone to be able to
take the worst moment of their life
and turn it into their life's work.
And she's just such an incredible woman for that.
Okay, Claire, from something quite serious to something
that you've probably heard nearly every single day
and not thought much about,
the archive is not just songs,
it's not just quotes and films and speeches.
It's also just like everyday sounds.
May I introduce this one to you?
You're very familiar with that sound I imagine?
Like, let me tell you this, Taylor Strano,
I was five years old when these crossing buttons
came to be in Australia,
and I have really visceral memories
of standing with my mum at an intersection
and holding my finger on the middle part
which is used for people who are hearing impaired
and sight impaired,
and it sends a pulse through at the same time
as the actual sound does.
And I just remember being so like entranced
by this thing and so interested in it.
And now it's just become so much a part
of the Australian way of life.
If I hear it out of context,
it'll transport me to an intersection somewhere
in Australia.
Well, somewhere out of context,
and I'm not sure if you've picked up on this,
but Billie Eilish was also quite taken by the fact.
Oh, I heard about this.
Yeah, so you're taking Biden,
it brings you back to us at Bourbon Street in Australia.
She heard it while she was here down under,
and it actually formed a sample
that you might have picked up
in arguably one of her biggest songs ever,
which is Bad Guy.
Bad Guy.
Duh.
Yep.
And she's talked about this in media previously
about how that all came to be.
I love that.
It's just a little bit of Australian slipped into
some Billie Eilish.
A couple of very quick mentions, Claire,
we have such a long rich history
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art being made.
As part of the Australian songbook.
And one of those tracks is being taken into the archive this year,
Tabaran by Rubble,
which is the title track from a record
that came out in 1990.
And it's around that time in Australia music
where a lot of Indigenous artists were teeming up
with contemporary Australian artists,
and you hear it in this track specifically.
It's like that thing of speaking in native language,
and then teeming it up with those contemporary,
almost dance sort of sounds.
Yothu Yindi is another really good example of this.
Yeah, it's so interesting,
because before that,
we heard Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural music
really just in cultural settings.
Yeah.
And when it started,
I think it was really interesting
that it was really interesting
and cultural music really just in cultural settings.
Yeah.
And when it started to see songs like Treaty
or like this come through,
it's like,
it started us understanding
that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture
isn't just about something that happens at Uluru, for example.
Like it's everywhere.
It's part of our everyday life.
This felt like a way for us to kind of just start bridging that gap a little bit.
They were awarded for it as well.
Like they won the 1992 RA for the best Indigenous release
for this that is going into the archive.
Also on a similar sort of ilk is a radio broadcast
from the year 2007,
the federal court recognized
the Yungora People's Native title
over Nuncan Barth Station up in W.A.
It's Kimberley Region,
and the ABC Kimberley Mornings with Vanessa Mills broadcast
that decision,
which is the first time that it ever happened.
It's pretty incredible.
It was able to bring what was such an important court proceeding
to local people of the area
and send it out to the masses in the region.
The federal court of Australia is just about to begin.
Justice Robert French is walking down in his flat road
to the white marquee that's been set up.
Court is now in session.
Everybody is standing.
They're all bowed.
Please proceed with the federal court of Australia now and certainly thank you.
Yeah, it's really interesting with Native title
because it was used to scare Munga for a long time
and when we started to understand that Native title
didn't mean that someone was coming for our backyards
that it meant protection of sacred sites,
that it meant conservation of land
from a people who've been taking care of country
for tens of thousands of years.
And so to be able to broadcast that
I think is such an important moment
in Australian history
and at a better understanding of how Native title still plays
a role in Australian cultural and political landscapes
and how it's still something we're still working on now.
If I say the words one, three, 00 to you,
how are you going to finish that sentence?
One, three, double, oh!
Six, triple, five, oh, six.
Yes.
If you're listening in the car with your general for children
they might be looking at you going,
what's that mean, Mum?
That actually makes me really sad
because this is something that younger generations
won't have as a collective memory moving forward
because they don't watch free to air TV
and that is these kinds of TV commercials.
That's a reading and writing hotline.
Yes.
There was a few other of that.
Are these ones relatively new compared to the other ones?
Yes.
Because like things like the slip-slop slap message
from the seagull,
or there was like life being it
and there was also the vitamin song.
I don't know if you remember the vitamin song.
Or the vitamin song might be stretching too far away.
But I can't sing the vitamin song because once I do,
I'll be singing it for the next week
and I can't do that to myself.
But these ads were specifically designed
that the music and the message
were so closely linked together
that they would drop an earworm
and then you'd never forget it.
And we're talking decades later,
we can all still sing the reading and writing hotline number.
Yes, that is burned into our collective consciousness.
I even did a web around the office.
A couple of the Gen Zs were also across that,
which makes me feel so it still has legacy now,
even though we're not watching free to air.
Does it still work though?
What, the new find out?
Can you ring it?
Let's give it a call.
One, three, two, one, three,
three, double, oh, six, triple five, oh six.
Oh, six, okay.
That's cool.
Hello, reading and writing hotline.
Okay, so can confirm that the reading writing hotline
still exists.
That's had a very nice chat with the operator, Offe.
Oh, I love that and they just answer immediately.
There's not even like a computer voice
that you have to speak to first.
There's no follow the prompt tones,
click number seven and do a star jump.
I love it.
That.
And it's a real person.
I am truly shook by a real person
just answering the phone.
This is wonderful.
They should redo the ads.
They should put those out until like YouTube ads
or something.
I'm pretty sure they exist out there.
Okay.
Oh my gosh.
Hellas Toronto.
I saw someone walking down the street
literally a week ago wearing this next sound on a t-shirt.
And I know that makes no sense.
But back in 1991,
a man named Jack Carlson was arrested
in Brisbane.
And this is what he said
when he was taken by police
and popped into their vehicle.
This is democracy manifest.
What is the charge eating a meal?
A succulent Chinese meal.
A succulent Chinese meal has become a sandwich.
I don't even know if we use it all in the same context
or for the same reason.
But sometimes we just say it
because he was in the valley
who was having a succulent Chinese meal.
He was accused of credit card fraud
which is why police were there to arrest him.
And here's a fun fact,
Hellas Toronto.
The journalist who was on the scene,
whose cameraman filmed that interaction
is none other than Channel 7's senior reporter,
Chris Reason,
who we now crossed to here on the cookie
because he's currently in Lebanon in a war zone.
Friend of the pod.
That is such an iconic,
iconic piece of Australian audio.
The vision is priceless.
It is like, he's wearing like ugly,
khaki outfit.
But it's so of the time.
But this is democracy manifest.
Democracy manifest.
He sadly did pass away,
Jack Halson in 2024.
He was aged 82.
And another fun fact,
Chris Reason,
interviewed him again decades after that arrest.
So go on YouTube.
The clip's gone viral
and you can actually watch Chris's interview with him there too.
Okay.
Not to make it all about me and my personal interests,
but to bring us home,
the final piece of audio
entering the archive this year,
is this.
And the mama used to sell her time.
What's the matter to you?
Hey!
Hey!
You think you do?
Why you look so sad?
It's not so bad.
It's a nice place.
Shut up, your face.
It's the song of your people, Taylor Strato.
Song of my people.
It is from Joe Dolce.
He was playing this character,
blending Italian and Australian,
I don't know,
communities, quirks.
It's so fun.
It's so silly.
You've definitely heard it.
I need you to know, though, Claire.
Shut up.
You face.
Or shut up.
You face.
Shut up, your face.
Yeah.
Became the best selling single
ever produced in Australia,
spending eight weeks at number one,
topping the charts in 11 countries,
including the UK and Germany.
So it transcends Australian sound.
I would love to know how this was received in Italy.
Both at the time and now.
Like, does it translate into Italian,
shut up your face?
Like, is there a...
No, it's not exactly.
No, it's not exactly.
And obviously it's of its time.
I'm not sure we were as culturally aware
back in the 80s.
Back then, it was embraced.
It wasn't to make fun of Italian immigrants.
It was like a loving tribute almost.
You know how in some houses growing up,
people had like the plastic fish on the plot.
Yeah.
You press the button and it would sing.
Yeah.
Or the Santa Claus that would sing.
Growing up in my very Italian migrant grandparents
fresh off the boat house,
we had a statue of a pizza chef holding in a cordon
and you would press the red button
and this is the song that would play.
Stop it.
They loved it.
Claire Mercury, thank you very much.
Thank you.
This has been such a wonderful little trip down memory lane.
This is great.
And thank you for taking that time to feed your mind
and your ears with us today.
If you are not already,
make sure you're following the quickie
and your favourite podcast app
because you would miss out on things like this.
And that would be a true crime.
That is the chance.
That is democracy manifest.
Is what that is.
The quickie is produced by me,
Taylor Strano,
Alaria Brophy,
and Clemerphy,
with audio production by Luke Hill.
Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on.

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