Kookaburra (song)

"Kookaburra"
Song
Written	1932
Writer(s)	Marion Sinclair
Language	English

"Kookaburra" (also known by its first line: "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree") is a popular Australian nursery rhyme and round about the Kookaburra (an Australian Kingfisher). It was written by Marion Sinclair (9 October 1896 – 15 February 1988) in 1932.

Marion Sinclair was a music teacher at Toorak College, a girls' school in Melbourne she had attended as a boarder. In 1920, she began working with the school's Girl Guides company.

One Sunday morning in 1932, Sinclair had a sudden inspiration in church and dashed home to write down the words to "Kookaburra". In 1934 she entered the song into a competition run by the Girl Guides Association of Victoria, with the rights of the winning song to be sold to raise money for the purchase of a camping ground, eventually chosen as Britannia Park. The song was performed for the first time in 1934 at the annual Jamboree in Frankston, Victoria, at which the Baden-Powells, founders of the Scouting and Guiding movements, were present.

Despite its "Aussieness", the song is well-known and performed around the world, particularly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where the Girl Guide movements in those countries have adopted it as a traditional song. It is included with other folk songs from around the world in the Girl Guide Song Book.

Marion Sinclair died in 1988, so the song is still under copyright, according to Australian copyright law. The publishing rights are held by Larrikin Music. In the United States, the rights are administered by Music Sales Corporation in New York City.

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