What can be said about John Williamson that hasn’t already been said? 2025 will mark his 55th year in the industry. He will also turn eighty. Twenty-five, fifty-five, eighty. From his humble beginnings as the son of a wheat farmer in the small Victorian Mallee town of Quambatook, it’s quite an achievement.
His first hit, ‘Old Man Emu’ is still as popular today as when he first performed it on Channel 9’s ‘New Faces’ TV program. It resulted in a recording contract and a number one hit that stayed number one for five weeks. Since that young age of twenty-four, John has traversed this country for fifty-five years from the tip of Cape York to the windy shores of Tasmania, from Newcastle to Perth and everything in between, performing to hundreds of thousands of Australians. He has written and recorded well over 500 songs and has a swag of awards too numerous to list. But let’s try for the top ones.
In 2022 John was honoured with a life-sized bronze statue in the main street of Tamworth, NSW. He has twenty-eight Golden Guitars, six ARIA awards, an Order of Australia, inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and the Australian Roll of Renown. He has sold over five million albums and achieved a hundred million music streams. John has sung at some of the most significant events both in Australia (Steve Irwin’s and Sir Donald Bradman’s memorial) and overseas (the first and tenth Bali Bombing Memorial services in Bali). His stirring rendition of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ has inspired both the crowds and the Wallabies in Rugby World Cups and Bledisloe Cups.
John’s audiences regularly span four generations. His popularity is increasing and his streaming audience defies trends, with the younger male audience his biggest growing demographic. You could ask why? Perhaps in these troubled times, John’s greatest legacy is in making Australians proud of their country and of who we are. His passion for Australia, its flora and fauna and the characters he meets on his travels, inspire his songs. Never one to shy away from controversy, his many conservation songs have left a mark on this country’s history and our consciences.
His live concerts take the audience on a journey across this vast land, moving deftly between larrikin humour and touching pathos. From ‘Cootamundra Wattle’, ‘Cydi’, ‘Three Sons’, ‘A Bushman Can’t Survive’, ‘Rip Rip Woodchip’, ‘Galleries of Pink Galahs’, ‘Raining on the Rock’, ‘Please Don’t Forget Me’ and his calling card, ‘True Blue’, he touches his audience’s hearts, gives them hope and lingers in their memories.
John’s fans will immediately recognise ‘My Travellin’ Days are Done’, as a line from another favourite song, ‘Chandelier of Stars’. After fifty-five years of travelling, it says it all. 2025 will also see the release of a new album, his 53rd, and his fifth picture book for children, Koala Koala, based on his song of the same name, to be published by Penguin Books.
John is still writing and recording new songs, but don’t miss out on seeing True Blue perform live in 2025 through to 2026 before his ‘Travellin’ Days are Done’. There is no doubt that his contribution to our country’s music and the national psyche will resonate long after the last note has been played.
