[5] However, they also handled broader social issues such as shallow materialism, alcoholism, car accidents, and cautionary tales of romance.

[7] Hospitalised with lymphoma, founding guitarist Brad Robinson was unable to attend the Hall of Fame induction in person.

The group lineup featured James Reyne, brothers Bill and Guy McDonough, Paul Williams, Robert Walker and Simon Binks.

[9] By early 1978 Spiff Rouch had separated into two groups: The Flatheads (including the McDonough brothers and Walker, along with Sean Higgins and Nigel Spencer) and Australian Crawl.

[10] David Reyne left the group in 1979 to finish his acting course, later becoming an actor and TV presenter as well as drumming for Cats Under Pressure and the Chantoozies (1986–1990).

[1][2] The group's popularity in the Mornington Peninsula area increased with further pub gigs, then they gained audiences with university students and inner city residents.

[12] The track included references to the shallow materialism of residents of Toorak[1] and to the Bombay Rock night club in Brunswick.

[9] Just days before recording "Beautiful People" Reyne had been hit by a car on Swanston Street, Melbourne, breaking bones in both wrists,[10] an episode later chronicled in the track "Indisposed".

[16] Australian Crawl's debut album, The Boys Light Up (1980), also produced by Briggs for EMI,[1] had a number of hit singles with songwriting shared around the group and beyond.

If Skyhooks has personified the bodgie larrikin and Cold Chisel the hard drinking working class man, Australian Crawl turned the bronzed lifesaver into a pop idol...

Crawl songs seemed to eulogise hedonism, adventure and the great outdoors for an audience that couldn't be bothered with Midnight Oil's politics.However, according to James Reyne some people accused them of being demonic.

[11] At about this time Robinson was married to actress Kerry Armstrong, later an Australian Film Institute Award winner,[20] who co-wrote a track "Easy on Your Own"[12] for the album.

2 behind Double Fantasy by John Lennon and ahead of AC/DC's Back in Black making it the best charting album by an Australian act.

[24][25][26] Duff McKagan, who was bass player with Guns N' Roses when "Sweet Child o' Mine" was written and recorded,[27] found the similarities between the songs "stunning," but said he had not previously heard "Unpublished Critics.

"[28] On the wave of popularity the band toured extensively playing to huge crowds at Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl (10,000), Sydney's Domain (90,000), the Narara Rock festival (70,000), smashing attendance records at indoor venues in Brisbane and Perth.

Two further singles, "Daughters of the Northern Coast" (August) and "Runaway Girls" (November) failed to reach the Australian Top 40.

[1] Over 1982 and 1983, Reyne was filmed with Australian actresses Rebecca Gilling and Wendy Hughes in the television miniseries Return to Eden, which was screened in September 1983.

[1] During breaks in filming, the singer accepted an offer from Paul Christie (Mondo Rock) and Kevin Borich to join their part-time band The Party Boys with Harvey James from Sherbet and Graham Bidstrup from The Angels.

[5] The Rip Curl/Australian Crawl Bell's Beach Surfing Festival[5] was won by Australian surfer, Cheyne Horan.

[34] In June 1984 the band was forced off the road when Guy McDonough was admitted to hospital in Melbourne; he died soon after of viral pneumonia.

[1][4] Australian Crawl regrouped with Mark Greig on guitar (ex-Runners) for a series of live performances in late 1984.

[38][deprecated source] "Things Don't Seem" written by Guy McDonough and Sean Higgins,[12] had been released as an Australian Crawl single in 1981 off Sirocco.

[40] By 1985 the group recorded their last studio album, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, with English producer Adam Kidron.

[2][41] The album, which allegedly cost $400,000 to record,[1] was a mishmash of styles and -- considering the expectations placed on the LP's sales -- a commercial disaster.

The band performed three songs for the July 1985 Oz for Africa concert—part of the global Live Aid program—"Reckless (Don't Be So)", "Two Can Play" and "The Boys Light Up".

[1] A cumulative total of eleven weeks at Number 1 on the Albums Charts places them equal fourth for Australian groups behind Skyhooks, The Seekers and Midnight Oil.

His first few singles failed to chart but 1987's "Fall of Rome" and the self-titled album that followed were the beginning of a string of hits that lasted until the early 1990s.

[46] Reyne also formed Company of Strangers that year with former Sherbet lead singer Daryl Braithwaite, Simon Hussey and Jef Scott.

[2][54] Lost & Found tracks from My Place include "Too Many People" a duet sung by Guy McDonough with Colin Hay of Men at Work.

[16] They were "Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama" #1673; "Lakeside" #1354; "Indisposed" #956; "Downhearted" #728; "Oh No Not You Again" #587; "Shut Down" #415; "Things Don't Seem" #371; "Boys Light Up" #305; "Errol" #227; "Beautiful People" #153; and "Reckless" #39.