A new song to help boost Australia's appeal with travelers from around the world has been unveiled by Tourism Australia, following a nationwide search in the Song for Australia competition.

The song, This is Australia, created by Sydney-based singer/songwriter Jackie Bristow, was announced today as the winner of the Song for Australia competition as decided by the Australian public. The competition, organised by Tourism Australia, sought to find a song which best captured the essence of Australia and would help to promote the country to travelers worldwide.

Tourism Australia Acting Managing Director, Ken Boundy said the competition provided an opportunity for all Australians to become involved in choosing a song which conveys both the people and the place.

"Over the past year the Song for Australia competition has attracted overwhelming support - from the hundreds of talented songwriters, who entered the competition, to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted to decide the winning song," Mr. Boundy said.

"Following an excellent response from songwriters Australia-wide we have a song that will be featured in tourism promotions aimed at inspiring travelers worldwide to experience Australia for themselves.

"The winning song will feature in a new consumer video, which is part of the further roll out of the new Brand Australia marketing approach - helping to differentiate Australia from its competitors.

�Jackie's song, This is Australia, brings to life a very personal perspective of Australia that will help to broaden the image and understanding of Australia as well as appealing to the hearts and minds of travelers globally.

"Importantly, This is Australia is also a song which all Australians can be proud of." Said Mr. Boundy.

A call for entries to Australian songwriters earlier this year resulted in around 500 entries in the Song for Australia competition. A panel of music industry representatives, including Deni Hines, and tourism marketing representatives selected five finalists for the public voting competition.

From the five finalists the Australian public was invited to select the overall winner through a two-week promotion run nationally on radio. When voting for the Song for Australia competition closed in late July a total of 163,749 votes had been received with the winning song, This is Australia by Jackie Bristow, the clear winner with 96,970 votes.

CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, the commercial radio industry's peak body, Joan Warner said commercial radio was proud to support the campaign to find a Song for Australia and to nurture Australian song writing talent.

"Using just two networks - Radio 2UE and parts of the John Laws and Southern Cross Broadcasting networks, and the Austereo part-owned MCM Take 40 Australia and adult networks, over 100,000 votes were generated in a little over two weeks," Joan Warner said.

"This activity has demonstrated the power of commercial radio to reach Australians en masse and to act as a call to action and interaction - in this case to vote for this important song. All commercial radio stations would like to congratulate the winner and Tourism Australia for this exciting initiative," she said.

The winning songwriter Jackie Bristow said it was a great honour to have her song chosen by Australians as the song to help promote the country around the world.

�There are so many things I love about Australia - not only the land and light and beauty of the country - but the goodness and honesty of the people," Jackie Bristow said. "I have tried to capture all of this in my song."

"Knowing there is so much history here and so much to learn from the land and the people, I hoped the feeling and inspiration I had felt could be shared and felt by others through the song -This is Australia."

Over the past two months, This is Australia has been professionally recorded with Jackie Bristow singing lead vocals and accompanied by a full orchestra of 20 musicians and backing vocalists. The final recording was produced, arranged, engineered and mixed by Daniel Denholm at Studios 301 in Sydney.

This is Australia will be used in Tourism Australia promotions including new consumer and trade videos, at trade events, and as the on-hold music for Tourism Australia offices globally.

Jackie Bristow will also perform This is Australia live at Australia Week Celebrations in London in early 2005.

To listen to the winning song, go to: www.tourism.australia.com

Contact: Louise Hodges, PR Manager Asia, Tourism Australia. Tel: +852 2531 3869/ email lhodges@tourism.australia.com

About Tourism Australia

Tourism Australia was officially formed on 1 July 2004. The new organisation is an initiative of the Australian Government�s Tourism White Paper.

The new organisation brings together the activities of the Australian Tourist Commission, the domestic marketing body See Australia, the Bureau of Tourism Research and Tourism Forecasting Council.