Peter Dawson wins the Bass Solo section in South Street’s Senior Vocal Contest and goes onto international fame, singing at Covent Garden and touring Australia with another South Street diva, Amy Castles. It was Dawson’s version of Waltzing Matilda’ that catapulted our unofficial national anthem to fame in 1938, after which versions came ‘thick and thin.’

(Watch Peter Dawson’s Waltzing Matilda)

Future Prime Minister James Scullin also makes his mark by taking out a first in the senior debating competition.