Christmas in Australia

Christmas in Australia is the theme song from the animated, made-for-TV movie “Blinky Bill’s White Christmas”, a spin-off from the Blinky Bill children’s books by Dorothy Wall and the “Adventures of Blinky Bill” TV series. The telemovie, written and directed by Guy Gross, first aired on the Seven Network on Christmas Eve of 2005. Gross also wrote the theme song along with lyricist John Palmer. In the movie, the song was sung by Christine Anu, who also reprised it at Sydney’s 2007 Carols in the Domain.

The plot of the film is described by its producers as follows: With Christmas just around the corner, everyone in Greenpatch is busily decorating the town square. Blinky Bill is up to his usual mischief and accidentally breaks Wombo’s snowdome.  To make amends, he decides to give Wombo a treat by creating a white Christmas in Greenpatch with real snow and a real Christmas tree. So Blinky and Flap begin a quest in search of the rare and mysterious Wollemi Pine Forest in order to cut down a tree for the village square in Greenpatch, while Splodge and Nutsy stay at home and, with a variety of outrageous experiments, try to create snow. Will they make it snow in time for Christmas Eve?  Join Blinky Bill and his friends as they celebrate the magic of a traditional European White Christmas in the Australian Bush. Extraordinary!

Christmas in Australia definitely, in my opinion, deserves a place in the “best of” Australian Christmas songs. Unfortunately it’s not as widely known and performed as it should be; perhaps because the music has not been readily available. I am hopeful that these new arrangements for choirs and soloists may go some way towards redressing that situation.

Versions available
This arrangement is available in seven versions – SATB, SSA and 2-Part (in D major & E flat major) for choirs; Low, medium and high voice for soloists/unison choirs.

Instrumental accompaniments
Also available, sold separately, are two instrumental accompaniments scored for piano, string quartet and glockenspiel. One, in D major, can be used with the 2-Part arrangement in that key; the other, in E flat major, can be used with the SATB, SSA and 2-Part arrangements in that key.