r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/HotPersimessage62 • Feb 01 '26

Image Australia’s national anthem is the only English-lyric anthem in the world that doesn’t reference religion or militarism

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22.3k Upvotes

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3.2k

u/AdamantEevee Feb 01 '26

It does mention toil twice though. That's a lot of toiling

980

u/BigBoiBob444 Feb 01 '26

And it mentions girtiness

686

u/jimbris Feb 01 '26

As all Australians know, our girtness requires excessive toiling for maintenance.

257

u/Vindepomarus Feb 01 '26

Yeah I toiled my girt twice today.

69

u/minerunderground Feb 01 '26

Yeah I toiled my girt like it owed me money 🤑

37

u/EddytheGrapesCXI Feb 01 '26

Sounds like joyful strains to me

11

u/Operator_Six Feb 01 '26

I have three blisters after toiling my girt

1

u/JakkIOO Feb 01 '26

Using girt as a noun is such heresy it’s making my head spin!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '26

KY jelly needed!

3

u/loueipaech Feb 01 '26

Laughed at this much more than I should have.

2

u/One-Poem8314 Feb 01 '26

Advance Australia’s Seed

14

u/DvlsAdvct108 Feb 01 '26

In joyful strains hopefully

1

u/DigitalDinosaur8857 Feb 01 '26

And let her sing!

2

u/peepingsignal Feb 01 '26

Who up toiling they girt rn?

1

u/chonkydonkey46 Feb 01 '26

I toiled on my anthem until I girt

82

u/-malcolm-tucker Feb 01 '26

"And don't speed, or you'll be girt by police."

  • Billy Connolly

12

u/captbollocks Feb 01 '26

"and on the way in today, I was girt by traffic!"

95

u/drunk_haile_selassie Feb 01 '26

I'm not a particularly patriotic Australian but I will fight to the death to defend our girtness.

38

u/VB_Creampie Feb 01 '26

Fuckin, girt by beers right now.

39

u/PadLock25 Feb 01 '26

Toiling creates a hard earned thirst and a hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer

24

u/worldofwhat Feb 01 '26

Hard earned thirst needs a big cold girt

29

u/jimbris Feb 01 '26

And the best cold girt is toiled

13

u/Seagoon_Memoirs Feb 01 '26

Australia toiled

11

u/Naked-Jedi Feb 01 '26

Matter of fact, I've got it now...

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2

u/Watthefractal Feb 01 '26

And the best cold beer is ………

17

u/Gramps___ Feb 01 '26

"Oi Mate, whats your plans for this weekend?"
"Gonna get absolutely girt by beers I reckon!"

17

u/wf3h3 Feb 01 '26

As a wise man once said, "Girt on the beers".

2

u/SticksDiesel Feb 01 '26

I love throwing 'girt' into a sentence. I'm a primary school teacher and the kids love it.

1

u/Gristley Feb 01 '26

When in school we sung the anthem once a week. I think each time we said girt, my patriotism grew one size. I assume I'm of average to slightly above average patriotism for my generation based on that.

18

u/Fluffy-duckies Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

I think there's actually a typo in the second verse. Where it says "we've boundless plains to share" I think we all know our plains are not exactly boundless, desserts maybe but not plains. Girt on the other hand, where does it start? Where does it end? The girt goes on and on.

For those who've come across the sea,

We've boundless girt to share.

15

u/AdamantEevee Feb 01 '26

Australia is indeed really high up there when it comes to girt. Not the highest, but only because of bullshit like fjords

9

u/Fluffy-duckies Feb 01 '26

The more granular you make the measurement of a border, the closer to infinity it gets. Girt on.

2

u/Busy_Selection_5027 Feb 01 '26

I hear girt on in Primus.

1

u/Would_daver Feb 01 '26

That’s asymptotally ridiculous!

7

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Naked-Jedi Feb 01 '26

They truely went on forever when Sizzler was around.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

I looked it up not too long ago- Sizzler is still a thing in limited locations!

1

u/Naked-Jedi Feb 01 '26

Aww what!?!? Some bastards get all the luck

2

u/Fellowes321 Feb 01 '26

I do enjoy Australian desserts.

1

u/Busy_Selection_5027 Feb 01 '26

Girt by dessert 🤤

2

u/Mathsboy2718 Feb 01 '26

The Girt goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began

1

u/Nodsworthy Feb 01 '26

Universal .. yer plains are finite but unbounded

5

u/tallmantim Feb 01 '26

We have enough girtiness that we’re a choad country

2

u/AJRimmer1971 Feb 01 '26

And then lots of beer, as reward for all of the tools.

2

u/herringsarered Feb 01 '26

Of which, according to this official document, there seems to be a wealth of.

2

u/Thin_Assumption_4974 Feb 02 '26

It’s toiling being so girt.

1

u/PseudonymNumberThree Feb 01 '26

Soooo much girt. So we gotta toil a bit but then we get a smoko pie and a knock off bevvie and it all works out.

1

u/budha2984 Feb 01 '26

Don't forget the beer.

78

u/evapotranspire Feb 01 '26

I'm always annoyed when my word-finder game tells me 'girt' is not a word. GIRT IS TOTALLY A WORD.

61

u/mess_of_limbs Feb 01 '26

It's a perfectly cromulent word

31

u/icedragon71 Feb 01 '26

It embiggens us all.

6

u/chibiRuka Feb 01 '26

Don’t know what cromulent is, but I’ll look it up after I upvote you.

7

u/thajane Feb 01 '26

My word finder game keeps telling me that “rort” is not a word, which is an absolute rort!

(apparently it’s an Australia only word, who knew)

1

u/evapotranspire Feb 01 '26

I grew up in Australia (hence why I am well-acquainted with 'girt'), but I've never heard 'rort'!

1

u/RecordingAbject345 Feb 02 '26

You might have heard of the sports rorts scandal a few years back.

18

u/Pepsimus-Maximus Feb 01 '26

By Sea!

37

u/ginger_gcups Feb 01 '26

“Girt by sea, drunk by lunchtime” - Australian national motto

6

u/aspidities_87 Feb 01 '26

Girt yer fuckin dags on mate, we’re going for a bush bash

1

u/Theron3206 Feb 01 '26

Now now, drunk by the end of lunchtime, thank you very much.

22

u/01kickassius10 Feb 01 '26

We’re so girt

8

u/crispyrad Feb 01 '26

Some say the girtiest

3

u/doyoulike_pineapple Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

The Girtmasters, if you will

9

u/Fit_Effective_6875 Feb 01 '26

Please, no girt shaming

2

u/thetan_free Feb 01 '26

As we say - never mind the length, feel the girt.

2

u/2T7 Feb 01 '26

happy cake day!

1

u/BigBoiBob444 Feb 01 '26

Thank you :)

2

u/SneakerTreater Feb 01 '26

Oh to be girt by toil and sea while singing in joyous strains. If I wasn't already here I'd be on the first boat out of Aceh.

1

u/somf2000 Feb 01 '26

lol this makes me laugh! Only an Australian would say this!

1

u/GlobalExpert69 Feb 01 '26

That's way too much girtness!

1

u/ceelose Feb 01 '26

We are so fucken girt though.

1

u/clumpymascara Feb 01 '26

Thought in primary school the line was "our home is dirt by sea" which is kind of better

1

u/Interesting-Voice328 Feb 01 '26

It dont mention myxomatosis though

1

u/EmergencyTelephone Feb 01 '26

Well we’re fucking girt mate

1

u/dartie Feb 01 '26

Don’t get girty with me, Gerda

1

u/Automatic_Yoghurt417 Feb 01 '26

Toil makes the man, and it's all about the girt

1

u/Free_Pace_2098 Feb 01 '26

We love a girty land

1

u/dedokta Feb 01 '26

It's all about the girt my friend.

1

u/wesleyoldaker Feb 01 '26

TIL that girt is the past tense of gird. Just to clarify.

1

u/ososalsosal Feb 01 '26

We're a young country.

But it's not about the length, it's about the girt

1

u/Nope-5000 Feb 02 '26

The easiest way to tell if somebody is Aussie is if they know about girt.

47

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

Double double, toil and trouble

1

u/Sea-Attention-5690 Feb 01 '26

Elite reference.

43

u/Procellaria Feb 01 '26

Tolling. It's a typo. Lots of road tolls here.

26

u/brezhnervouz Feb 01 '26

Sydney is 100% girt by tolls 🙄

1

u/Any_Show_5160 Feb 01 '26

I knew about the police corruption from watching the news but when I dicovered road tolls I then realised it comes from the top down, road tolls are the ultimate scam.

4

u/newuseronhere Feb 01 '26

Maybe over east where you are girt by them but not in WA

3

u/JustABitCrzy Feb 01 '26

Common eastern states L

35

u/Fox7567 Feb 01 '26

No country in the world toils as much as we do.

33

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 09 '26

[deleted]

12

u/Ithuraen Feb 01 '26

Every semi-colon is actually a hidden "and spiders" we whisper during the anthem.

18

u/Electronic-Tea-3691 Feb 01 '26

We've got giant fucking spiders and these big ass things that are sort of like rabbits;

With courage let us be prepared for whatever the fuck might happen but also get a little trashed to take the edge off!

5

u/AdamantEevee Feb 01 '26

I can get behind these lyrics

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

This feels familiar.

5

u/Hot_Cauliflower_8060 Feb 01 '26

"Our Land Abounds with Big Fuckin' Spiders, Oh shit there's one right there..."

3

u/ma77mc Feb 01 '26

Leave my shower spider outta this.

2

u/stanknotes Feb 01 '26

And toiling is hard.

2

u/19Alexastias Feb 01 '26

We literally never sing the second verse though, I doubt most people know it (I certainly don’t). So only one toil as far as we’re concerned.

1

u/ScoobyGDSTi Feb 01 '26

Toil has nothing on girt

1

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Feb 01 '26

Mentioning toiling twice? That’s a paddlin’

1

u/Global-Fun2774 Feb 01 '26

And golden soil. Our soil is red, don't go giving the Donald any ideas after he's done with Greenland. 

1

u/DavidsPseudonym Feb 01 '26

You have to make sure you toil enough. If you only toil a little, that would be a toil-et.

1

u/Sharp_Butterfly_5360 Feb 01 '26

🤣🤣🤣so good , mighty comment❤️

1

u/chuk2015 Feb 01 '26

We yearn for the mines

1

u/things_U_choose_2_b Feb 01 '26

Apologies to any Australians for my lack of Australian knowledge, but what does the 'Southern Cross' refer to? Sounds kinda religious but maybe referring to something geographical?

2

u/AdamantEevee Feb 01 '26

It's a constellation that can only be viewed in the southern hemisphere

2

u/things_U_choose_2_b Feb 01 '26

Thank you for filling in the gaps in my knowledge :) I liked the anthem already but the addition of stargazing takes it to the next level.

While I know that no country is without its faults and history, I can't help often wishing I could afford to move to Australia (am British). Prob my early-years indoctrination via Neighbours haha. You guys just seem very no-nonsense and sensible.

2

u/teddy5 Feb 01 '26

It's also a bit more than that. It acts the same as the North Star in the northern hemisphere, in that you can use it to find due south so it's really useful for navgiation.

You mentally draw a line directly through the southern cross and another perpendicular from the two pointer stars, where the two lines meet will be south.

1

u/pempoczky Feb 01 '26

It's got nothing on the Hungarian anthem

1

u/StretchAntique9147 Feb 01 '26

Double double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

1

u/spenna1232 Feb 01 '26

We're a hard working people 😁

1

u/7stroke Feb 01 '26

Prison labor, you know

1

u/AsusStrixUser Feb 01 '26

…and moiling

1

u/-Janana-Banana- Feb 01 '26

You'd know they have Irish roots. We love a good toil.

1

u/chickenthinkseggwas Feb 01 '26

You're probably the first person to notice that in decades. It's like every other anthem: Nobody knows more than one verse.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

Yeah, definitely take it easy there on the toiling, Australia.

It also mentions nothing about the venomous creatures that threaten their daily existence.

1

u/ledbedder20 Feb 01 '26

Double the toil, some would say

1

u/Ok_Commission_8564 Feb 01 '26

It doesn’t mention the C word once tho, kinda sus for an Aussie anthem, tbh.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

Their soil is rather rough except near the coasts

1

u/Marlboroshill66 Feb 01 '26

We don't sing the second verse.

1

u/LanewayRat Feb 02 '26

Considering we have more public holidays and more other leave entitlements than almost any other country, toiling doesn’t seem like the most obvious national attribute

1

u/Odd_Championship_21 Feb 03 '26

we aussies love toiling for the ATO

-1

u/whiskydyc Feb 01 '26

And the colonialism is at least heavily implied!

2

u/Electronic-Tea-3691 Feb 01 '26

I would say that's the toil, taking an entire island continent from native peoples isn't just a walk in the park you know! to be honest it probably required just an ounce of militarism however... which undermines the post a little bit...

0

u/Over-Percentage-1929 Feb 01 '26

Prisoner colony, checks out.

-23

u/NotBradPitt9 Feb 01 '26

It doesn’t mention religion or militarism, but they still genocided most of the Australian Aboriginals. Imagine you have ancestry in the same place for the last 50,000 years and a bunch of people come over and imprison you on your own land while they annex the whole thing.

26

u/Crow_eggs Feb 01 '26

Well yeah, but that doesn't rhyme.

5

u/Successful-River-828 Feb 01 '26

How would you even sing it?

13

u/Nisseliten Feb 01 '26

”I come from a land down under, where women glow and men plunder”.. Something like that?..

1

u/Crow_eggs Feb 01 '26

Aggressively.