Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he,
Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be.
 Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he,
Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be. Generations of Australian children have grown up with the Kookaburra Song and so have children in many other countries. The song has a special appeal for all ages. Leaders around the world share dtheir memories with us. If you'd like to internationalise Kookaburra even more, read to the end to find other language versions of the words.
Marion Sinclair dashed home one Sunday morning to put down on paper the words and music of the Kookaburra Song. The inspiration for this timeless and now international classic came as she sat in church one Sunday morning, way back in 1932. Marion had attended Toorak College as a girl and then again as a music teacher. She was also a Guide Leader, and Victorian Guides were running a competition in Victoria to find a song, an 'Australian round'. She'd made several unsuccessful tries at composing before she produced the winner - Kookaburra. Music remained one of her interests - and she was still composing at 86 years of age in 1982. She always said she worked best at night, and often found inspiration at 3 o'clock in the morning. In her day it was so difficult to achieve any recognition, nobody was willing to pay for music and it was very hard to make a profession from it. She did like that the youth of later generations had music as an important part of their education. When asked what is was about the Kookaburra Song that made it a youth classic, Marion didn't know. "I didn't write it," she had said. "It came to me in a flash, everything so clear, and all I did was put it down on paper!" Marion introduced the song at the World Jamboree at Frankstone, Victoria, Australia in 1934. Afterwards on her way home by train, when heard a group of Guides singing the song. This was a special moment for her, but even then she didn't realise how far this catchy little song would travel. Reference - Adelaide Sunday Mail newspaper 1982
Memories Some international leaders have sung Kookaburra with Guides visiting Australia, and have returned the favour by teaching their version of the song. One leader said: "I have warm memories of singing Kookaburra with some former Guides from Burma who were studying in Sydney - this was in about 1984 and Guiding was forbidden in Burma. The girls came to our Guide Unit's campfire at Glengarry in Sydney - the Guides were amazed that the Burmese students knew so many of the campfire songs that they also knew. The Burmese girls taught the Guides to sing Kookaburra in Burmese." Australians have sung it overseas: "I sang it at camp in England 38 years ago, including the version about the telephone wire and the pants on fire." and - "I am very fond memories of singing "Kookaburra" in Mexico in 1995 at a campfire at Our Cabana and also at Ticali (the Guide Centre in Mexico City. In fact, whilst in Mexico we taught it to a group of guides who have their weekly meetings at Our Cabana"  Kookaburra is in Canada as these few show - "I learned it here in Canada when I was a schoolgirl so you are going back to the early '60s. We learned it in school in regular music lessons. I remember in grade 4 (I'd be about 8) singing it at our spring concert when our class did a trip around the world in song, but I already knew it before then. I guess you might say that they were the standard songs in those days to represent Australia." and - "We have been singing the Kookaburra song since I was a Guide many years ago." "I learned it as a young girl it might have been in Brownies, but it also might have been school. I think we sang it both places." And from all over the USA "I don't remember the song from my own childhood, but my daughter who's now 10 loved it when she was small (watching the "Barney the Dinosaur" show). And now she won't admit to ever having liked it, so I "torture" her with my singing it." Some still have a bit of a memory there .... "Do you mean: Kookaburra sits under an old gum tree...... Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra, How gay your life must be? We sang that song when we in our early school years and my daughter, who just turned 10, also remembers singing it earlier." and ..... "I'm 44 years old and remember singing Kookaburra in Brownies at vacation Bible school, and at summer camp. I have a lot of great memories with that song, singing it a campfires, etc. I'm in Vermont USA and grew up in a small town named Randolph Center which is in the center of Vermont. This Monday, my Brownie troop is learning about Australia for Thinking Day and we will be singing the Kookaburra song!" "We always sang the Kookaburra song at Great Blue Heron's Camp Chinook in Waukesha Wisconsin when I was a child in the 60's." "This is one we sing in the States at least our area for 4-H camps. I think we have done it couple time with our Girl Scouts at camp. Our girls aren't into singing, unfortunately)." "I remember learning Kookaburra in elementary school in the early sixties in Casper, Wyoming. My 9 year old daughter says she learned it from the TV show called "Barney". My 14 year old son says he learned it in second grade during music class in Gregory, South Dakota."  "My troop loves to sing Kookaburra. They even wrote their own verse to it. Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Writin' a song for you and me
sing kookaburra, sing kookaburra
sing your song for me..... My 6 & 7 year old brownies wrote this."
Other versions From Liverpool, England .... The Kookaburra does no work,
He has no work to do,
He sits upon a tree all day,
And has a snake or two,
And when he's cut that snake in half,
He sits upon a tree to
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
He he he he he he Kookaburra sits on the electric wire
Tears in his eyes and his pants on fire
Ouch Kookaburra, Ouch Kookaburra
Hot your tail must be. German Auf 'nem Gummibaum sitzt der Kakadu
macht sein linkes Auge auf und zu
lacht, Kakadu der lacht, Kakadu
der lacht die ganze Nacht. Ha Ha Ha Hindi (India) Kookaburra jaadi par bita hai
Kookaburra jungle ka raja hai
Ga, Kookaburra, Ga, Kookaburra
Jai se sub bun ja Tortleduifie (Afrikaans - South Africa) Tortleduifie sit in die Akerboom
Van die bos is hy die oom
Ah Tortleduifie Ah Tortleduifie
Blei jou lyf sal wee. Tui (New Zealand) Tui Tui sits in the Kowhai tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Sing Tui Tui, Sing Tui Tui
Gay your life must be
The warm memories are saved for last ... "I have sung Kookaburra at Carrick 60 Belgium in 1975; WITAN 75 in Holland; at Our Chalet New Year's midnight outside in the snow around a real Christmas tree decorated with real lit candles; at London Adventure session Olave House 1970; on midsummer's day in the woods in Finland; and of course for the past 42 years in New Zealand! Shall we sing it this July at the National Jamboree in Iceland? I would not be at all surprised!"  "We sang "Kookaburra" in northern Virginia when I was a Brownie, back in the mid-to late-1950s. My mother was my leader, and did a lot of singing with it. Fast forward to 1993. My mother, now nearly 73, takes her first trip to New Zealand and Australia. I, now a graying-haired Girl Scout volunteer, receive a postcard from her - a picture of a kookaburra, with the message, "They really *do* sound like they're laughing!" Incidentally, we also sang the song in Southern California in the early 1960s, and the girls (and adults) of Tenn-Ark-Miss GSC sing it today." "I remember singing it as a child, oh, almost 40 years ago. It's a cheerful, happy song, although I didn't understand all the words in my youth. (I've learned what they mean since then!) But as a child, gum was something I chewed, not a type of tree; and king of *the* bush? Which bush? There were so many bushes outside. I lived my first 5 years in Southern California (the Los Angeles area), then moved to Massachusetts for the next five years. I cannot remember if we sang that song in California or in Massachusetts - probably Massachusetts, as I seem to recall a teacher explaining that a kookaburra is a type of bird who lives in Australia. (and I only went to school in California for a few months.) How exotic! Not that I ever dreamed of getting to Australia in those days. And of course I never imagined that I would have e-friends at all, let alone e-friends in Australia, land of the kookaburra. Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane." Things so simple can bring so much joy.
 |
