English is the primary language spoken throughout Australia.

Australian English (AusE, AuE, AusEng, en-AU^[1]) is a major variety of the English language and is used throughout Australia. Despite English being given no official status in the Constitution, Australian English is Australia's de facto official language and is the first language of the majority of the population.

Australian English started diverging from British English after the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788 and was recognised as being different from British English by 1820. It arose from the intermingling of children of early settlers from a great variety of mutually intelligible dialectal regions of the British Isles and quickly developed into a distinct variety of English.^[2]

Origins[link]

Australian English began its development after the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove.

The earliest form of Australian English was first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the colony of New South Wales. This very first generation of children created a new dialect that was to become the language of the nation. The Australian-born children in the new colony were exposed to a wide range of different dialects from all over the British Isles, in particular from Ireland and South East England.^[3]

The native-born children of the colony created the new dialect from factors present in the speech they heard around them, and provided an avenue for the expression of peer solidarity. Even when new settlers arrived, this new dialect was strong enough to deflect the influence of other patterns of speech.

A large part of the convict body were the Irish, 25% of the total convict population. Many of these were arrested in Ireland, and some in the UK. It is possible that the majority of Irish convicts either did not speak English, or spoke English "indifferently". There were other significant populations of convicts from non-English speaking areas of Britain, such as the Scottish Highlands and Wales.

Records from the early 19th century survive to this day describing the distinct dialect that had surfaced in the colonies since first settlement in 1788,^[2] with Peter Miller Cunningham's 1827 book Two Years in New South Wales, describing the distinctive accent and vocabulary of the native born colonists, different from that of their parents and with a strong London influence.^[3]

Influences[link]

The Australian gold rushes saw many external influences adopted into the language.

The first of the Australian gold rushes, in the 1850s, began a large wave of immigration, with approximately two per cent of the population of the United Kingdom emigrating to the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria.^[4]

This great influx of immigrants caused the integration of numerous new patterns into the local speech. By this time several words of Irish origin had been adopted into the language (some of which are also common elsewhere in the Irish diaspora), such as tucker for "food", "provisions" (from Irish tacar: "support, provisions"), goog / googy "egg" (Gaelic gog / gug "cluck", "egg" [baby-talk]), chook "chicken" (Gaelic tsiug / tsiuc / tsiucaí / tsiugaí "come!" [call to chickens], "chicken" [baby-talk]), duffer "rustler" (Gaelic dubhfhear "dark(-haired) man, highwayman, man involved in "dark" deeds), bum "bottom (of person)" (Gaelic bun "bottom, base"), galoot "fool, idiot" (Gaelic galltuata "foreign simpleton"), sheila "young woman, woman" (Gaelic síle "tomboy / mannish woman, effeminate man" - an idiomatic use of Síle "Sheila"), gob "mouth" (Gaelic gob "beak, pointy nose"), puss "face" (Gaelic pus "mouth"), slog (of whiskey) (Gaelic slog "swallow"), blob (Gaelic blab), slob (Gaelic slab "slime, mud, goo"), hooligan (from the Gaelic family name Ó hUallacháin, from uallachán "howler, rowdy person, rioter"), gab (Gaelic geab [a slang word] "speak, say"), and cack / cacky / kicky "excreta" (baby-talk) (Gaelic cac "excreta", cacaí / caicí "excreta" [baby-talk]). Moreover, the meaning of one or two native English words may have changed under Gaelic influence, such as paddock for "field", cf. Irish páirc "field".

Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo, boomerang, budgerigar, wallaby and so on have become international. Other examples are cooee and hard yakka. The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced /kʉː.iː/) which travels long distances. Cooee is also a notional distance: if he's within cooee, we'll spot him. Hard yakka means hard work and is derived from yakka, from the Jagera/Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region.

Also from there is the word bung, from the Sydney pidgin English (and ultimately from the Sydney Aboriginal language), meaning "dead", with some extension to "broken" or "useless". Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The most well known example is the capital, Canberra named after a local language word meaning "meeting place".

Among the changes starting in the 19th century gold rushes was the introduction of words, spellings, terms and usages from North American English. The words imported included some later considered to be typically Australian, such as bonzer.^[5] This continued with the influx of American military personnel in World War II as well as film; seen in the enduring persistence of okay, you guys and gee.^[5] The American influence through film has led to the localised adoption of terms such as bronco for the native brumby meaning wild horse, and cowboy for the native drover and stockman for a cattle or sheep herder, though such words are still overtly felt to be "Americanisms".

Where British and American vocabulary differs, Australians sometimes favour an Australian usage as in capsicum, also used in India (for US bell pepper, UK red or green pepper), sometimes shares a term with America, as with eggplant for UK aubergine, and sometimes shares the British usage, such as mobile phone for US cell phone.

Phonology[link]

Australian English is a non-rhotic dialect that is distinctive from other varieties of English. It shares most similarity with other Southern Hemisphere accents, in particular New Zealand English.^[6] Like most dialects of English it is distinguished primarily by its vowel phonology.^[7]

Vowels[link]

Australian English monophthongs^[8]

Australian English diphthongs^[9]

The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which include monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels. There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction, which is unusual amongst the various dialects of English, though not unknown elsewhere, such as in regional south-eastern dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in the US.^[10]

Consonants[link]

There is little variation with respect to the sets of consonants used in various English dialects. There are, however, variations in how these consonants are used. Australian English is no exception.

Australian English is non-rhotic; in other words, the /r/ sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. However, a linking /r/ can occur when a word that has a final <r> in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. An intrusive /r/ may similarly be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have <r> in the spelling in certain environments, namely after the long vowel /o:/ and after word final /ə/.

There is some degree of allophonic variation in the alveolar stops. Intervocalic /t/, but not /d/, undergoes voicing and flapping to the alveolar tap [ɾ] after the stressed syllable and before unstressed vowels and syllabic /l/, though not before syllabic /n/, as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel in the same breath group. For some speakers /t/ in final or in medial position is glottalised to [ʔ]. For many speakers, /t/ and /d/ in the combinations /tr/-/tw/ and /dr/-/dw/ are also palatalised, thus /tʃr/-/tʃw/ and /dʒr/-/tʃw/, as Australian /r/ is only very slightly retroflex, the tip remaining below the level of the bottom teeth in the same position as for /w/; it is also somewhat rounded ("to say 'r' the way Australians do you need to say 'w' at the same time"), where older English /wr/ and /r/ have fallen together as /ʷr/.

Yod-dropping occurs after /r/ and word initially after /l/, /s/ and /z/. Other cases of /sj/ and /zj/, along with /tj/ and /dj/, have coalesed to /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ respectively for many speakers. /j/ is generally retained in other consonant clusters.

Variation[link]

Academic studies have shown that there are limited regional variations in Australian English; the most notable variation is sociocultural. Some Australians speak English-based creole languages such as the Australian Kriol language, Torres Strait Creole and Norfuk language.

Sociocultural variation[link]

According to linguists, Australian English can be divided into three main varieties: broad, general and cultivated.^[12] These accents form a continuum that reflects the variations in the Australian accent. They can reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of speakers, though this cannot be relied on.^[13]

Australian Aboriginal English is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use.

The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by the minority groups, which are of non-English speaking background.^[14] A massive immigration from Asia has made a large increase in diversity and the will for people to show their cultural identity within the Australian context.^[15] These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by the children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as the Afro-Asiatic and Asian languages.

Regional variation[link]

Although relatively homogeneous, some regional variations in Australian English are notable. The dialects of English spoken in the south east of Australia, where majority of the population lives, differs somewhat to that spoken in South Australia, Western Australia and Torres Strait islands. Differences in terms of vocabulary and phonology exist.

Most regional differences come down to word usage. For example, swimming clothes are known as cossies or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland, and bathers in Victoria and South Australia. The word footy generally refers to the most popular football code in the particular state or territory; that is, rugby league in New South Wales and Queensland, and Australian rules football elsewhere. Beer glasses are also named differently in different states. Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use of the interrogative eh? and the position of the word but at the end of a sentence in Queensland ("But I don't like him" becomes "I don't like him but").

There are some notable regional variations in the pronunciations of certain words. The extent to which the trap‑bath split has taken hold is one example. This phonological development is more advanced in South Australia, which had a different settlement chronology and type than other parts of the country.^{[citation needed]} L-vocalisation is also more common in South Australia than other states. In Western Australian English the vowels in near and square are typically realised as centring diphthongs, whereas in the eastern states they may also be realised as monophthongs.^[16] A feature common in Victorian English is salary–celery merger, while in Queensland there is a merger of warrior and worrier, both being pronounced /wariə/-/waria/. There is also regional variation in /uː/ before /l/.

Vocabulary[link]

Bush poets such as Banjo Paterson captured the Australian vocabulary of the 19th century in their bush ballads.

Australian English has many words and idioms which are unique to the dialect and have been written on extensively, with the Macquarie Dictionary, widely regarded as the national standard, incorporating numerous Australian terms.

Internationally well-known examples of Australian terminology include outback, meaning a remote, sparsely populated area, the bush, meaning either a native forest or a country area in general, and g'day, a greeting. Dinkum, or fair dinkum means "true", or "is that true?", among other things, depending on context and inflection.^[17] The derivative dinky-di means 'true' or devoted: a 'dinky-di Aussie' is a 'true Australian'.

Australian poetry, such as The Man from Snowy River, and folk songs, such as Waltzing Matilda, contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by Australians even though some are not in common usage today.

Australian English, in common with several British English dialects (for example, Cockney, Scouse, Glaswegian and Geordie) use the word mate. Many words used by Australians were at one time used in England but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning.

For example, creek in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it means a small watercourse flowing into the sea; paddock in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; bush or scrub in Australia, as in North America, means a wooded area, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs).

Litotes, such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used, as are diminutives, which are commonly used and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are arvo (afternoon), barbie (barbecue), smoko (cigarette break), Aussie (Australian) and pressie (present/gift). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives). For example, "Gazza" from Gary, or "Smitty" from John Smith. The use of the suffix -o originates in Irish Gaelic (Irish ó), which is both a postclitic and a suffix with much the same meaning as in Australian English.

In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as". "Full", "fully" or "heaps" may precede a word to act as an intensifier. This was more common in regional Australia and South Australia but has been in common usage in urban Australia for decades. The suffix "-ly" is sometimes omitted in broader Australian English. For instance "real good" in lieu of "really good."

Spelling and grammar[link]

As in most English speaking countries, there is no official governmental regulator or overseer of correct spelling and grammar. The Macquarie Dictionary is used by universities and other organisations as a standard for Australian English spelling. The Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers is the most prominent style guide, serving as the standard for Australian governments.^[18]

Australian spelling is similar to British spelling. As in British spelling, the "u" is retained in words such as honour and favour, and "re" is preferred over "er" in words such as theatre and for metric units such as metre, litre. The "-ise" ending is used in words such as organise and realise, although "-ize" also exists, but is far less common. Words spelled differently from British spelling, according to the Macquarie Dictionary include "program" as opposed to "programme", "jail" as opposed to "gaol", "medieval" as opposed to "mediaeval", "encyclopedia" as opposed to "encyclopaedia", and "analog" as opposed to "analogue" when used in a technical or electronic sense.^[19] Both "acknowledgment" and "acknowledgement", as well as "abridgment" and "abridgement" are used, with the shorter forms being endorsed by Australian governments.^[19][20] In addition to these words, the dictionary also notes an increased tendency within Australia to replace the 'ae' in words such as "palaeontology" and "faeces", and the 'oe' in words such as "foetus" and "diarrhoea" with 'e', as with American practice.^[19] Single quotation marks with logical punctuation and unspaced em-dashes are preferred, and the DD/MM/YYYY date format is used.

Different spellings have existed throughout Australia's history. A pamphlet entitled The So-Called "American Spelling", published in Sydney some time in the 19th century, argued that "there is no valid etymological reason for the preservation of the u in such words as honor, labor, etc."^[21] The pamphlet also claimed that "the tendency of people in Australasia is to excise the u, and one of the Sydney morning papers habitually does this, while the other generally follows the older form."

This influence can be seen in the spelling of the Australian Labor Party, spelt without a "u", with the atypical American spelling that was more common at the time of its formation in 1912. For a short time during the late 20th Century, Harry Lindgren's 1969 spelling reform proposal (Spelling Reform 1 or SR1) was popular in Australia and was adopted by the Australian government.^{[citation needed]} SR1 calls for the short /e/ sound (as in bet) to be spelt with E (for example friend→frend, head→hed). Many general interest paperbacks were printed in SR1.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

	Australia portal
	Language portal

• Australian English phonology
• Australian English vocabulary
• Australian Aboriginal English
• Australian Kriol language
• Strine
• New Zealand English
• IPA chart for English dialects

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Look up Appendix:Australian English vocabulary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Australian National Dictionary Centre
  • Ozwords—free newsletter from the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which includes articles on Australian English
• The Australian National Dictionary Online
• Australian Word Map at the ABC—documents regionalisms
• R. Mannell, F. Cox and J. Harrington (2009), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University
• Macquarie Dictionary
• Aussie English for beginners—the origins, meanings and a quiz to test your knowledge at the National Museum of Australia.

Articles related to Australian English v t e Australia History Timeline Prehistory Archaeology Exploration 1606–1787 1788–1850 1851–1900 1901–1945 Since 1945 Constitutional Diplomatic Economic Federation Immigration Indigenous Military Monarchy Railway Geography States and Territories Capitals Cities Cities by population Climate Continent Deserts Environment Flora Fauna Forests Geology Islands Mountains Regions Protected Areas Rivers Governance Government Constitution Monarchy Australian governments Parliament Foreign relations Military Law Law Enforcement Courts Electoral system Public Service Intelligence and Security Federal Budget National debt Politics Political parties Elections Political donations Economy Agriculture Companies Energy Home ownership Homelessness Manufacturing Media Mining Poverty Taxation Telecommunications Tourism Transportation Australian dollar Reserve Bank Stock Exchange Household income Gross state product Welfare system Superannuation Society Crime Demographics Education Health care Human rights Immigration LGBT rights Culture Australians Architecture Arts Australian English Cinema Cuisine Wine Dance Indigenous Literature Music Public holidays Religion Sport Television Theatre Art Symbols Coat of arms Flags Honours States and Territories Other Australian of the Year Award Environmental issues Overviews Index Outline Book Category Portal WikiProject v t e Languages of Australia English varieties Australian Australian Aboriginal Torres Strait Major indigenous languages Arrernte Kala Lagaw Ya Luritja Pintupi Pitjantjatjara Tiwi Walmajarri Warlpiri Western Desert Yolŋu Matha Pidgins, creoles and mixed languages Australian Aboriginal Pidgin English Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin Gurindji Kriol Kriol Queensland Kanaka English Torres Strait Creole Light Warlpiri Sign languages Auslan Australian Aboriginal v t e Dialects and accents of Modern English by continent Europe Great Britain Black British Black Country Brummie Cheshire Cockney Cornish Cumbrian East Anglian East Midlands Essex Estuary Geordie Kentish Lancashire Mackem Mancunian Mockney Mummerset (mocking) Multicultural London Norfolk Northern Pitmatic Potteries Received Pronunciation Scottish (Glaswegian Highland) Scouse Southern Suffolk dialect Sussex West Midlands Welsh (Cardiff) West Country Yorkshire Ireland Cork Dublin Mid Ulster Other Gibraltarian Guernsey Jersey Manx North America United States African American Vernacular Appalachian Baltimorese Boston Cajun California Central Pennsylvania Chicano General American Hudson Valley Inland Northern American Midland New England New Jersey New York City North–Central American Northeast Pennsylvania Ozark Pacific Northwest Pennsylvania Dutch Philadelphia Pittsburgh Southern American Texan Tidewater Vermont Western Yat Yeshivish Yooper Canada Cape Breton Lunenburg Maritimer Newfoundland Ottawa Valley Twang Pacific Northwest Quebec West/Central Canadian Other Bahamian Barbadian Belizean Bermudian Caribbean Jamaican English in Puerto Rico Trinidadian Oceania Australia General Australian Broad Australian Cultivated Australian Queensland South Australian Victorian Western Australian Australian Aboriginal Torres Strait Other New Zealand Hawai'i South America Falkland Islands Guyanese Africa Cameroon Kenyan Liberian Malawian Namibian Nigerian South African Ugandan Asia Burmese Hong Kong Indian Malaysian Pakistani Filipino Singaporean Sri Lankan Vietnamese v t e English-speaking world Click on a coloured region to get related article:   Countries and territories where English is the national language or the native language of the majority. Africa Saint Helena Americas Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Bermuda British Virgin Islands Canada Cayman Islands Dominica Falkland Islands Grenada Guyana Jamaica Montserrat Saba Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States United States Virgin Islands Europe Guernsey Ireland Isle of Man Jersey United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand Norfolk Island   Countries and territories where English is an official language, but not the majority language. Africa Botswana Cameroon Ethiopia Eritrea Gambia Ghana Kenya Lesotho Liberia Malawi Mauritius Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Sierra Leone Somaliland South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Americas Belize Puerto Rico Asia Hong Kong India Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Singapore Europe Gibraltar Malta Oceania American Samoa Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands Fiji Guam Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru Niue Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Pitcairn Islands Samoa Solomon Islands Tokelau Tuvalu Vanuatu

Adam Hills (born 10 July 1970) is an Australian comedian and television presenter.^[3] He has appeared on Australian and British television and is best known for his role hosting the Australian ABC music trivia show Spicks and Specks. He has been nominated for a Perrier Comedy Award and Gold Logie Award.

He began performing as a stand-up comedian in 1989 at the age of 19, and since 1997 has produced ten solo shows which have toured internationally. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Montreal Just for Laughs festival, earning three consecutive Perrier Award nominations for his Edinburgh shows in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

In 2002, he scored a minor hit with his single "Working Class Anthem", in which he sang the lyrics of the Australian National Anthem to the tune of "Working Class Man", a famous song by Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes.

Personal life[link]

Originally from the Sydney suburb of Loftus, Hills developed an interest in comedy after discovering an inflight comedy channel on a plane at the age of eight. Hills was born without a right foot and wears a prosthesis, which has become a frequent source of comedy in his act.^[4] He studied a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) at Macquarie University, graduating in 1991.

In December 2009, Hills married opera soprano Ali McGregor.^[5]

Their first child, a daughter named Beatrice Pearl, was born on 8 May 2010.

Career[link]

Stand-up career[link]

Hills entered the comedy scene in 1989 when he made his first appearance at the Sydney Comedy Store at the age of 19. He spent several years from 1991 splitting his time between stand-up gigs and breakfast radio, but by the mid-1990s Hills says the hours had become exhausting and he decided to focus on live comedy. In 1997 he premiered "Stand Up and Deliver", the first of 10 solo shows, all of which have toured internationally. He has travelled widely, performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Montreal Just For Laughs festival.^[6] He has been nominated for three consecutive Perrier Comedy Awards for his 2001, 2002 and 2003 solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[7]

The title of his 2001 show, "Go You Big Red Fire Engine", was coined during a 1999 performance in Melbourne. Hills asked an audience member to yell his name to the audience and for the audience to yell it back, but instead the man yelled "Go you big red fire engine!"^[8] The phrase quickly became an audience chant, and Hills promised he would make it the name of his next show because, he says, "it was such an uplifting and genuinely silly moment."^[9] "Go You Big Red Fire Engine" later became the name of a second stand-up show and a comedy album; it also appeared in a Detroit newspaper, on a Swedish website and was yelled by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja in the Australian Parliament.^[8]

His artificial right foot is commonly used as a source of humour in his shows and the comedian has been known to remove it and pass it around. However, Hills had been performing live comedy for over a decade before he made reference to his prosthesis on stage, and it was only after "Go You Big Red Fire Engine" was nominated for a Perrier Award in 2001 that he began incorporating it into his act. Hills says he felt he could too easily have become a novelty act and that he "didn't want to be known as the one-legged comedian ... I wanted to prove myself as a comic before talking about this."^[10]

Hills regularly has a sign language interpreter at his festival shows, a move sparked by a performance he did in Adelaide at a disability art conference.^[11] An interpreter had been provided at the show, and Hills found that it not only allowed the deaf audience members to enjoy his material but was also an entertaining and fascinating experience for the hearing audience members. "Now I have hearing people who will only book [for signer shows]," he says.^[4]

Television career[link]

Hills is best known for his role on the Australian music trivia show Spicks and Specks, which he has hosted since its premiere in 2005. In late 2007, he joined the show on a national live tour dubbed the "Spicks and Speck-tacular", with appearances in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle and Perth.^[12] In late 2011 and early 2012, the show hit the road again for "Spicks and Speck-tacular The Finale", appearing in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Wollongong, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. He has also made appearances on Australian shows Rove Live, The Glass House and The Fat, as well as the British Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week and Ask Rhod Gilbert [1].^[13] Additionally he appeared on the first TV edition of BBC Northern Ireland's Great Unanswered Questions [2]. He conducted backstage interviews at Australia's 2005 and 2006 Logie Awards and was one of three presenters at the 2007 awards.^[14][15]

In June 2008, Hills co-hosted the ABC coverage of the 2008 Summer Paralympics.^[16][17]

In July 2009, Hills appeared in Thank God You're Here; he also appeared on Good News Week.

Hills presented his own weekly talk show on the ABC from early 2011, entitled Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.^[18]

Other work[link]

In 2002, Hills released a single titled Working Class Anthem, in which he sang the lyrics of the Australian National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", to the tune of "Working Class Man", a famous song by iconic Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes, titling it "Working Class Anthem". Around 40 comedians contributed to the song, which made the independent top 10 in Australia. All proceeds went to the Australasian Fire Authority Council, an organisation supported by Barnes and Jon Bon Jovi that supports firefighters. Hills has performed the song several times on television, including a performance honouring Barnes' guest appearance on Spicks and Specks.^[19]

Between 2003 and 2005, Hills wrote as a columnist for the BBC's disability website Ouch!.^[20]

Solo shows[link]

• Stand Up and Deliver (1997)
• Life Is Good (1998)
• My Own Little World (1999)
• Goody Two Shoes (2000)
• Go You Big Red Fire Engine (2001) – Perrier nominee
• Happy Feet (2002) – Perrier nominee
• Cut Loose (2003) – Perrier nominee
• Go You Big Red Fire Engine 2: Judgement Day (2004)
• Characterful (2006)
• Joymonger (2007)
• Inflatable (2009)
• Mess Around (2010)
• Mess Around (2011)

Awards[link]

For his television work, Hills has been nominated at the Logie Awards on numerous occasions. The categories he has been nominated for are:

• Most Popular New Male Talent: 2006
• Most Outstanding New Talent: 2006
• Gold Logie: 2008–2011
• Most Popular TV Presenter: 2008–2011

2012:

• Won Silver Logie for Most Popular Presenter
• Spicks & Specks won Logie for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program
• Nominated for Gold Logie ^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Adam Hills on Twitter
• Columns written for the BBC Ouch! disability website
• MOSH Profile
• TGS Profile
• Interview
• Sydney Morning Herald article