Ten of Australia’s best-loved songs are about to get new life as the headline acts in an initiative that celebrates the music that has shaped our national culture.

Bush ballad Waltzing Matilda, Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning and Christine Anu’s My Island Home are among the first songs to be included in the new National Songbook.

Developed by APRA AMCOS and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, the songbook honours the songs, songwriters and composers whose creative vision has given voice to Australian stories.

Launched in Canberra on Wednesday night, it will become a permanent digital archive, preserving the works for future generations and ensuring Australians can continue to discover the songs that have helped define the nation.

“No 10 songs could ever tell the whole story of Australia, but together these inaugural inductees help us understand, as a nation, where we’ve come from, who we are and the values we’ve carried through generations,” APRA AMCOS chief executive Dean Ormston, said.

“As APRA celebrates 100 years of championing songwriters, composers and music publishers, we welcome these debut entries into The National Songbook as songs that have helped become part of our shared cultural story, reflecting the extraordinary breadth, diversity and richness of Australian songwriting and composing.”

The first songs to be included range from Waltzing Matilda, which was written by ‘Banjo’ Paterson and Christina Macpherson and first recorded in 1927, through to The Presets’ iconic 2007 dance anthem My People.

Chosen for their artistic and cultural significance, the others include the 1966 global hit Friday on My Mind by George Young and Harry Vanda; Helen Reddy and Ray Burton’s feminist anthem of 1971 I Am Woman; another other protest song in 1991’s landmark Treaty written by Dr M. Yunupingu, Stuart Kellaway, Witiyana Marika, M. Mununggurr, Cal Williams, G. Yunupingu, Peter Garrett and Paul Kelly.

Personal experience as a powerful act of storytelling is celebrated by the induction of Ruby Hunter’s 1990 classic Down City Streets, while the enduring connection between people and place is highlighted in Neil Murray’s My Island Home (1987), a hit with both Warumpi Band and later with Christine Anu.

Screen and classical compositions round off the final 10, with Peter Sculthorpe’s evocative sound world Earth Cry (1990) and the 1998 score to Australian cult thriller The Boys, written by The Necks’ Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck and Lloyd Swanton.

They were chosen by a panel of 10 industry experts from across the musical spectrum including songwriters, composers, broadcasters, journalists and historians. It was led by APRA chair Jenny Morris and NFSA chair Annette Shun Wah.

NFSA chief curator Meagan Loader said the new National Songbook reflected “the remarkable breadth of Australian songwriting and composition – from songs of protest, belonging and identity to works that have become woven into our national story and our DNA”.

“As Australia’s audiovisual archive, the NFSA will ensure these songs and stories are preserved in our national collection of works of significant cultural heritage, heft and heart, providing a new way for Australians now and into the future to engage with the songs and songwriters who have shaped us,” she said.

To be eligible for inclusion in The National Songbook, songs must be written or co-written by an Australian APRA member, must have been released at least 10 years prior to consideration, and must demonstrate significant cultural impact within Australia.

The National Songbook has playlists on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music.