Songfacts®:

• The "great southern land" is Australia, Icehouse's homeland. Lead singer Iva Davies wrote the song in 1981 when they were on their first international tour and he got a severe case of homesickness.
• Icehouse had a devoted fan base in Australia that stuck with them through the decades, but they found other countries much less hospitable. Their debut album (Icehouse, released in 1980) was released on an independent label and earned them lots of fans in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a record deal with Chrysalis, a major label.
  
  The tour that inspired this song took them into the UK, where Chrysalis hyped them up. The British press punched back and wrote some scathing reviews. The tour then went to North America, where in the span of one week they had two tour bus accidents. They also had trouble adjusting to the close quarters and yearned for the comforts of home. All this went into "Great Southern Land," a celebration of Australia.
• An interesting contrast to this song is "Down Under" by another Australian band, Men At Work, which was also released in 1982. That song is also about Australia, but it's largely satire, a criticism on the selling of the country to commercial and political interests. "Great Southern Land" is sincere and heartfelt, but without the goofy imagery like the "fried-out Kombi on a hippie trail, head full of zombie." Also the "Down Under" video was a madcap romp that played well on MTV, while the "Great Southern Land" visual is mostly rocks and earnest performance. Men At Work went on to conquer America and various other lands, but Icehouse couldn't break through internationally.
• This was the first song Iva Davies wrote for Icehouse's second album, Primitive Man, which at one point he considered a solo project. By 1982, the band had pretty much petered out after their rough time on the road, but they still had a lot of name recognition - and a record deal - so "Great Southern Land" and the others Davies wrote became Icehouse songs, with two departing members and three new ones. This set the stage for future Icehouse material, which was dominated by Davies with shifting lineups.
• Keith Forsey produced the Primitive Man album with Iva Davies. Forsey, and Englishman, went on to produce and co-write some huge hits, including Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What a Feeling."
• Icehouse used a LinnDrum drum machine on this track. He brought the machine back from America.
• The music video looks like it takes place in the barren lands of the Australian outback, but it was actually shot in a chalk quarry in the suburbs of Sydney.
• "Great Southern Land" plays in the 1988 movie Young Einstein, starring the Australian comedian Yahoo Serious.
• Iva Davies performed an extended version of "Great Southern Land" with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in front of the Sydney Opera House just before midnight on December 31, 1999 as part of the Millenium Eve Celebration that was broadcast throughout Australia.