Kookaburra (song) facts for kids

"Kookaburra" is a very popular Australian song. It's also known by its first line: "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree". This song is a nursery rhyme and a round about the kookaburra, a famous Australian bird. Marion Sinclair wrote it in 1932.

How the Song Was Created

Marion Sinclair was a music teacher at Toorak College. This was a girls' school in Melbourne, Australia. She had also been a student there. In 1920, she started working with the school's Girl Guides group.

One Sunday morning in 1932, Marion Sinclair had a great idea for a song while in church. She quickly went home to write down the words for "Kookaburra". In 1934, she entered the song into a competition. This competition was held by the Girl Guides Association of Victoria. The winning song's rights would be sold to help buy a camping ground. This camping ground later became Britannia Park.

The song was first performed in 1934 at a big event called a Jamboree. This event took place in Frankston, Victoria. The founders of the Scouting and Guiding movements, the Baden-Powells, were there to hear it.

Even though "Kookaburra" is very Australian, people sing it all over the world. It's especially popular in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Girl Guide groups in these countries often sing it as a traditional song. You can find it in the Girl Guide Song Book, along with other folk songs from around the world.

About the Song's Rights

When a song is written, it usually has a copyright. This means only the owner can decide how it's used. Marion Sinclair passed away in 1988. Under Australian copyright law, the song is still protected by copyright. This protection lasts for a certain number of years after the writer's death.

The company that owns the rights to publish "Kookaburra" is Larrikin Music. In the United States, another company called Music Sales Corporation manages these rights.

A Legal Case

In 2009, Larrikin Music took legal action against the band Men at Work. They claimed that a small part of the flute music in Men at Work's 1981 song "Down Under" sounded too much like "Kookaburra". This idea first came up on an Australian TV show called Spicks and Specks.

A judge in the Federal Court of Australia first decided that Larrikin Music did own the copyright to "Kookaburra". Later, in 2010, the judge ruled that Men at Work had indeed copied a "substantial part" of "Kookaburra" in their song. Larrikin Music asked for a large share of the money from "Down Under". However, the court decided that Larrikin Music should receive 5 percent of the song's earnings since 2002. This was still a lot of money.

In 2011, Men at Work's record company tried to appeal this decision, but they lost. The High Court of Australia also refused to hear another appeal. This meant the original ruling stood.