Ross Wilson On Why He Won’t Play Australia Day Concerts Anymore

Ross Wilson says he will no longer play Australia Day concerts. Instead, the Australian rock legend will play the special ‘Living In The land Of Oz’ concert to mark Survival Day 2021.

“Over the years I’ve played lots of Australia Day concerts because it is a big thing with most councils and they put on some kind of event and have fireworks,” Ross tells Noise11.com. “I got paid very well for those but as time has gone by I made the decision a couple of years ago that things are still quite serious between indigenous Australians and the colonial ones, including myself. I think it is important to address some of the issues I addressed in ‘Living In The Land of Oz’ so I made a decision that I am not going to play at “Australia Day” events until they change the date”.

Wilson wants a new date for Australia Day so that all Australians can celebrate equally. “I’d love to celebrate Australia Day and have it more inclusive but to put it deliberately on the 26th of January, which is the anniversary of 26th of January 1788 which was when the First Fleet left Botany Bay and went into Port Jackson and claimed it for England and it became an English colony,” he says. “The results for Indigenous Australians are plain to see even today in the fact they were dispossessed in a country they had lived in for tens of thousands of years. There began bloody conflicts. For me it is a real red flag. It is a problem to have it on that date so lets more the date. ‘Change the Date’ as Midnight Oil say on their latest album. It is a movement , so let’s change the date. Lets’ have Australia Day where we can all celebrate Australia without that tainted date over our had.”

The Living In The Land Of Oz concert will feature Ross Wilson & The Peaceniks with Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission and Jessie Lloyd’s Mission Songs Project. The show will kick off at 2:30pm Tuesday 26 January at the Melbourne Pavilion in Kensington.

Tickets are available here

“I will be playing that song and a lot of other songs I have written over the years. I’ll be doing Mondo Rock songs and Daddy Cool songs and we are going to have a lot of fun. We are up against stiff competition. There are a lot of Australia Day events going on. I hope someone comes along”.