Biography Caroline Carleton

Poet Biography

Caroline Carleton (1820-1874), her husband and two children arrived in South Australia from England in 1839 and lived in Adelaide for some time. Her admirers later had a monument placed over her grave at Wallaroo.

The Song of Australia was the result of a competition sponsored by the Gawler Institute in 1859 to celebrate its second anniversary. There were 96 entries but it was the five verse song, written by English-born poet, Caroline J. Carleton which was awarded the first prize of ten guineas.

The song impressed Charles Cameron Kingston, the Premier of South Australia, so much that he asked public school teachers to teach it to all their students. It never became Australia's National Anthem though as the Commonwealth government preferred Advance Australia Fair, composed in Sydney in 1878.