[10] The best-known version was then released on Columbia in 1981 as the second single from Men at Work's debut studio album Business as Usual.
[14][15][16] In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time so far, "Down Under" was ranked number 2 behind Cold Chisel's "Khe Sanh".
[17] The lyrics to "Down Under" depict an Australian man travelling the globe (specifically mentioning Brussels and Bombay, as well as the hippie trail), meeting people who are interested in his home country.
The story is based in part on singer Colin Hay's own travels abroad, including a prominent reference to a Vegemite sandwich (a popular spread in Australia, which was nowhere to be found in Brussels in that time, whereas the character is supposed to receive a Vegemite sandwich), which derived from an encounter with a tall baker from Brussels who emigrated from Brunswick, Melbourne.
[15] "Hippie trail" refers to a subcultural tourist route popular in the 1960s and 1970s which stretched from Western Europe to South-East Asia.
[15] Speaking to Songfacts about the overall meaning of the lyric, Hay remarked: The chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the overdevelopment of the country.
[22] Men at Work played this song in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside other Australian artists.
In May 2001, Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) celebrated its 75th anniversary by naming the Best Australian Songs from 1926 to 2001, as decided by a hundred-strong industry panel.
Sections of the flute part of the recording of the song were found to be based on "Kookaburra", written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair.
In June 2009, 28 years after the release of the recording, Larrikin Music sued Men at Work for copyright infringement, alleging that part of the flute riff of "Down Under" was copied from "Kookaburra".
[33][34] On 30 July, Justice Peter Jacobson of the Federal Court of Australia made a preliminary ruling that Larrikin did own copyright on the song, but the issue of whether or not Hay and Strykert had plagiarised the riff was set aside to be determined at a later date.
[43][44] The revelation of the copyright status of "Kookaburra", and more so the pursuit of royalties from it, has generated a negative response among sections of the Australian public.
[44] Colin Hay has since suggested that the deaths of his father, Jim, in 2010, and Men at Work flute player Greg Ham, in 2012, were directly linked to the stress of the court case.
An acoustic version of the song was recorded for Colin Hay's eighth studio album Man @ Work, which was released in 2003.
[86] Requested by Telstra for use in an Australian advertising campaign during the 2012 Summer Olympics period, the song was available through iTunes on 31 July 2012.
Australian rock band King Stingray released a version on 19 October 2022[127] and featured on the soundtrack of the Tourism Australia short film, Come and Say G'day.
[128] For their iteration, King Stingray had discussions with Colin Hay and recorded their version in a combination of English and their local Indigenous language, Yolŋu Matha, and comes with the subtitle "Under One Sun".