Australian Legislation

Each year I receive several emails regarding Australian Copyright Legislation.

This year (2015) I have collected information on the section of the legislation that I believe relates to Free Christmas Carol events.

I went to Google and Wikipedia.

Here is the link to Wikipedia and copyright.
Wikipedia - Copyright_law_of_Australia

Regarding the "Copyright Amendment Act 2006" Wikipedia state that :-

The Act also introduced a copyright exception allowing parody and satire, and an exception to allow certain non-commercial use by public sector institutions like universities, schools, art galleries, and archives, provided that an Australian court decides an exception would be consistent with the Berne three-step test.

As I read it carols used in non-profit making events would be exempt from Copyright rules.

I suggest that you show this page to your senior members and let them make a decision on the Copyright Act as it applies to your organisation.

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Australian Copyright Information
Song	Music	Words	Other Information
A Bush Christmas	C.J. Dennis 1876 - 1938		Published in the 'Herald', 24 December 1931, p4
A Dry Christmas -	Trevor Williams		To the tune of Day I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas - Received 2007
A Little Bush Fairy	Unknown	Maggie May Gordon
An Australian Carol	William G.James.	John Wheeler	© 1948 Chappell & Co Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd., London W1Y 3FA.
Aussie 12 Days of Christmas	Unknown
Aussie Jingle Bells	Unknown
Boomerang Of Flowers	Leigh Newton	Mary Philip	© Leigh Newton 1983
Carol of the Birds	William Garnet James	John Wheeler
Christmas Bush For His Adorning	William G. James	John Wheeler
Christmas Day	William G. James	John Wheeler
Christmas Where the Gum Trees Grow	Val Donlon	Lesley Sabogal	Traditional words by Lesley Sabogal
Christmas In Australia	Unknown		Played by "The Irish Drovers" on Sydney radio stations in December 1987.
Christmas In the Alice	Unknown
Deck the Sheds With bits of Wattle			To the tune of 'Deck the Halls'.
Santa Claus In The Bush	Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson - 1864-1941
Six White Boomers	Rolf Harris	John D. Brown
Tangmalangaloo	John O'Brien		John O'Brien was the pseudonym of Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952).
The Great Brown Land Down Under	Unknown		An email received from Kerri-lea on 22 December 2007 contained these verses.
The Melbourne Carol	Norman Banks	Norman Banks	This Carol was sung for the first time during the Sixth Annual Christmas Eve Festival, 1943. The Festival is now known as Carols By Candlelight.
The Three Drovers	William G. James	John Wheeler	© 1948 Chappell & Co Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd., London W1Y 3FA.
The Traditional 12 days of Christmas	Unknown
Upside down Christmas	Shirley Erera Murray	Shirley Erera Murray	Written by Shirley Erera Murray, who is in fact a New Zealander, it will fit to many tunes found in standard hymn books (11,10,11,10).
Christmas in a Country Town	Melanie Evans	Heather Cunningham	Composed 2011. Approval to publish received by the “Christmas in Australia” web site. PDF music available by email.
In February 2007 I discovered this interesting web forum The Mudcat Cafe. The title does not do justice to the amount of information that can be found within the many postings since its commencment in December 1998.
A link to over 200 Australian Folk Songs, some of the songs contain the music as well as the words.