Jack O’Hagan MBE 1898-1987

‘Along the Road to Gundagai’ was featured in J. & N. Tait’s pantomime Aladdin at the King’s
Theatre, Melbourne, in December 1922. Because there were no local recording facilities, the first ‘Gundagai’ recording was made in Britain. Peter Dawson recorded it in 1931 and in 1937 it was chosen as the theme for the long running Dad and Dave radio serial. O’Hagan wrote more songs in the same vein – ‘Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox’ (1938), ‘The Snake Gully Swagger’ (1939), ‘Snake Gully Home of Mine’ (1940) and ‘When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai’ (1942) – but it was only ‘Gundagai’ that retained its popularity. It was recorded by Barry Humphries in duet with Dick Bentley in 1972, Daryl Somers and Stephane Grappelli in 1975, Slim Dusty in 1978 and Ian McNamara in 1990. It was also featured prominently on the soundtrack of the 1978 film Newsfront. 

‘After the Dawn’ (1926) was a big hit. Three years later came ‘Rose of Flanders’, a song eulogising Nurse Edith Cavell that O’Hagan wrote to tie in with the Sybil Thorndike film Dawn, and ‘Mexican Serenade’, based on the waltz from Delibes’ Coppélia. It was recorded by both Gladys Moncrieff and Richard Tauber. O’Hagan wrote it under the pseudonym ‘Pamela Terese’, the given names of one of his daughters. Throughout his career, O’Hagan adopted a number of pseudonyms, including ‘Ferguson Noakes’, ‘John Francis Quinlan’ and ‘Dean Flintoft’.

Many of O’Hagan’s most endearing songs had home grown themes. The bush featured in ‘Down by the Murray’, ‘That Old Bush Shanty of Mine, ‘I’m Off to Woop-Woop’, ‘I’m Gonna Hump My Bluey’, ‘Yackandandah’ and ‘There’s a Part of My Heart in Wonthaggi’. There were ‘hero’ songs like ‘Kingsford Smith, Aussie Is Proud of You’, ‘Our Don Bradman’ and ‘The Lone Girl Flyer’, dedicated to Amy Johnson; later came ‘Ginger Meggs’ and ‘Our Marjorie’, celebrating the achievements of Olympic sprinter Marjorie Jackson. There were ‘special occasion’ songs like ‘Colonel Campbell and Mr Lang’, satirising the unconventional opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ‘Carry On’ to raise spirits in the Depression, ‘Let’s Take a Trip to Melbourne’, to promote that city’s centenary, and, later, ‘Moomba’, for its annual community festival. His war songs included ‘Red Cross Nurse’, ‘England Can Take It’, the mocking ‘Oh, How We Love You, Mister Hitler’, and the wistful ‘Little Ships Will Sail Again’.

O’Hagan was a pioneer broadcaster, singing his own songs on 3AR as early as August 1924. He was regularly heard on 3LO, in which Allan’s had an interest, and later on 3AW, an Allan’s–J.C. Williamson’s joint venture. He was anchorman for 3AW’s early ‘live’ test cricket broadcasts – actually studio recreations. Later, for 3DB, he wrote, directed and performed in shows like Songs and Songwriters and Them Was the Days.