Australian Karaoke plays the Nordic stars

Jorgen Jorgenson	In 1828, Jorgenson wrote to the Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania proposing a Zen-like solution to racial conflict. He suggested that a hut be constructed west of the river Ouse, a thoroughfare for local tribes. This hut would house a small group of whites who would act in a way that might break the cycle of suspicion: The apparel of the inmates of this remote habitation should be different from that of other whites ever seen by the natives, in order to excite veneration, and induce to a belief of peaceable and friendly intentions toward them. The white men should be taught to traverse the country without endeavouring too early to promote any intercourse with the blacks: go to and fro seemingly inattentive to what was passing around them. N.J.B. Plomley Jorgen Jorgenson And The Aborigines Of Van Diemen’s Land Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1991, pp. 35-36
Marie Bjelke-Petersen	While the brothers developed regimens for the healthy body, their sister Marie aimed to encourage healthy minds. Her first novel, The Captive Singer, contrasted the vigorous and devout life of Tasmania with the decadent world of Europe.
Greg Norman	Greg Norman has crowned his golfing life in the USA, amassing a fortune and epitomising the ruthless individualism that is celebrated in the American pantheon. While Finnish socialists have foundered in Queensland, Norman has managed to rise to the top, exuding ‘the smell of money’.
Percy Grainger Grieg’s behaviour to me was flawlessly fatherly, tender and sweet from the first to the last. It just shows what close ties bind one Nordic composer to another, and it also shows the strange affinity that links Australia to Scandinavia. Their people like ours are a Colonial people. They are still colonizing their own great waste lands—in parts as sparsely populated as Australia—and the percentage of Scandinavians that colonize abroad, in the USA. for instance, is a higher percentage of the home population than that ever sent out by Britain. It seems as if the Australian type in so far as it differs from its British forefathers is largely reverting to Scandinavianism … John Bird Percy Grainger London: Macmillan, 1976, p. 124
Augustin Lodewyckx	The story begins as you open the front gate. In the middle of the garden is a large oak tree, with swings and ropes hanging from its sturdy arms. Unlike a normal oak tree, these arms are splayed out horizontally. It is still possible to see the marks where bricks were hung from branches to warp their growth. Up the steps to the verandah, you’ll find the name of the household embossed on a brass plaque—Huize Eikenbosch (House of Oaks). The house and garden are legacies of a fanciful campaign to wilfully impose European standards on southern soils.
Manning Clark	Clark’s approach was to fight rather than follow the Nordic ideal. But this revolt can itself be seen as part of Nordic culture.
Justus Jorgenson	To the public, the most scandalous aspect of life in Montsalvat was Jorgenson’s transparent sexual life. While continuing to profess allegiance to his wife, Jorgenson openly acknowledged his mistress; equal respect was shown to offspring on both sides of the law. The patriarch of Montsalvat subscribed to a higher morality than public decency, just as Grainger saw flagellation as a creative inspiration that transcended existing mores.
Jørn Utzon	For Utzon, the effect of sunlight burning on its white surface is comparable to the alpengluhen, or radiance of snow-capped mountains at sunset. For critic Philip Drew, the exterior contains a reticent majesty: The tiles are a parable with a fairytale message that exalts ordinary things by showing us how they are really extraordinary if we can only discover their true nature. The tiles have their own rhetoric, rustic to be sure—countrified, rough on the surface, robust—yet inwardly, they posses magic hidden fire. They are also possibly one of the most perfect things Utzon realised in the Opera House. Philip Drew The Masterpiece: Jorn Utzon: A Secret Life South Yarra: Hardie Grant Books, 1999, p. 289
Anders Ousback	[Ousback’s] piece combines a Scandinavian holistic sensibility with the coarser elements native to Australia. Ousback has since had requests to re-make this setting but, like Lasseter who could never find his once-sighted reef of gold, he has been unable to locate the original source of his clay. Like Utzon’s Opera House, Ousback’s breakfast setting is a singular expression of how Australia might be if designed by Scandinavians.
Bill Kelty	During the first term of government, the ACTU organised an overseas study for a group including Bill Kelty, Laurie Carmicheal and Simon Crean. The group went beyond the normal ports of call in Britain and spent most of its time in Sweden and Norway. Organised by Olle Hammarstrom, their Swedish tour included trips to the Uddevalla Volvo factory, legendary in its enlightened approach to the worker as craftsman responsible for the whole car. The result of their travels was the 1987 report Australia Reconstructed, which underpinned the prices and incomes accord with the ACTU.
Closing Ceremony	A sublime Nordic moment in Australian iconography occurred during the climax of the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony, when Cathy Freeman stood with the flame aloft, about to set a surrounding ring of water alight in a moment of Wagnerian alchemy. But the mechanism stuttered…