"MJC" wrote in message
...
There was a great sci-fi movie in the late 50's called "On the Beach"
which told the story of a submarine crew that survived a worldwide nuclear
holocaust because they were out in the ocean under water. While waiting
for
the "end" to come to an end, they constantly monitored radio broadcasts
from
around the world but more and more stations kept dropping off the air as
most of the earth became silent.
After some weeks and the nuclear dust cleared, they made their way to
Australia because they figured that was the safest place what with
radiation
and all. Anyway, it really was a classic (and certainly one of the early
leftist's attempts to scare people into buying into their anti-war agenda
although still a great movie just the same), but the reason that I mention
it here is that all throughout the movie, the song "Waltzing Matilda" was
the background music that gave a common musical theme for the movie which
was set, for the most part, in Australia.
I'm thinkin' that perhaps you had seen that movie as a kid and the
song's Australian connection never left you.
Sorry, just rambling....
Now I have to PLONK myself.

MJC

Don't remember much from the movie, but I did read the book. Did the movie
keep the SW radio subplot? The sub crew kept receiving encouraging CW
gibberish, even well after all the other signals went dark. They were able
to direction find the signal to the Pacific Northwest. If I recall, the
elements of the solved mystery involved a pop bottle, a loose window
shutter, and most implausably -- a power grid that never blew it's fuse.

Frank Dresser