Australian Music Trivia
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50 free Australian Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Australia has exported a lot more than a flute riff that sounded suspiciously like Kookaburra. These Australian music trivia questions and answers cover AC/DC and INXS, Kylie and Olivia, Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel, the Bee Gees' Queensland years, Tame Impala, Sia, The Wiggles, the ARIAs, Triple J's Hottest 100 and the anthem arguments. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Good for a pub quiz, an Australia Day round or a Hottest 100 party.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was AC/DC formed in 1973?
Sydney
The band insists its music is simply rock and roll, whatever critics call it.
Q 02What is the surname of the two brothers who founded AC/DC?
Young
Angus played lead guitar in a schoolboy uniform; Malcolm handled rhythm guitar until his retirement.
Q 03Which AC/DC singer died of alcohol poisoning in 1980, months after Highway to Hell?
Bon Scott
English singer Brian Johnson took over and the band recorded one of the best-selling albums ever that same year.
Q 04Which 1980 AC/DC album became one of the best-selling albums of all time?
Back in Black
It was the first album recorded with the band's new frontman after the death of the original singer.
Q 05Who was the lead singer of INXS for 20 years?
Michael Hutchence
After his death in 1997 the band tried several replacements, including a winner chosen on a reality TV show.
Q 06Which INXS single was the band's only US number one?
Need You Tonight
It came from the 1987 album Kick, the band's international breakthrough.
Q 07What was INXS originally called when it formed in 1977?
The Farriss Brothers
Three Farriss brothers were in the line-up, and the final name is a phonetic play on 'in excess'.
Q 08Which character did Kylie Minogue play on the soap opera Neighbours?
Charlene Mitchell
Her debut single came out the week after the show's famous wedding episode aired in Australia.
Q 09Roughly how many records has Kylie Minogue sold worldwide?
More than 80 million
That makes her the highest-selling Australian-born female artist of all time, with two Grammys and 18 ARIAs.
Q 10Which Midnight Oil frontman later served as an Australian federal government minister?
Peter Garrett
He won the seat of Kingsford Smith for Labor in 2004 and became Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Q 11Which 1987 Midnight Oil album produced 'Beds Are Burning' and 'The Dead Heart'?
Diesel and Dust
Both singles highlighted the plight of Indigenous Australians, and the first hit number one in several countries.
Q 12Who is the Scottish-born frontman of Men at Work?
Colin Hay
He immigrated with his family in 1967 and first played as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert.
Q 13A 2010 court ruled that the flute riff in 'Down Under' was based on which song?
Kookaburra
A TV quiz show first raised the resemblance; the riff was a late addition the producer called a musical joke.
Q 21Where were the Bee Gees' Gibb brothers born?
Isle of Man
The family moved to Redcliffe, Queensland, in the late 1950s, where the brothers' career began.
Q 22What is the name of Nick Cave's long-running band?
The Bad Seeds
He formed it in 1983 after The Birthday Party, once billed as the most violent live band in the world, broke up.
Q 23Who was the lead singer of 1960s folk-pop group The Seekers?
Judith Durham
The group was named joint Australians of the Year for 1967, the only band ever given the honour.
Which 1986 John Farnham album became the biggest-selling Australian album by an Australian act?
Q 14Which Men at Work album topped the US chart in 1983 at the same time as 'Down Under'?
Business as Usual
They were the first Australian act with a simultaneous number-one album and single on the Billboard charts.
Q 15Who founded Crowded House and remains its primary songwriter?
Neil Finn
The band formed in Melbourne in 1985, and its debut gave the US top-ten hit 'Don't Dream It's Over'.
Q 16In which city was Sia born and raised?
Adelaide
She started out in an acid jazz band called Crisp before moving to London and singing for Zero 7.
Q 17Which young dancer starred in Sia's 'Chandelier' video and its follow-ups?
Maddie Ziegler
Sia co-directed the trilogy of videos and hid her own face behind a wig at live shows.
Q 18Tame Impala is essentially the studio project of which musician?
Kevin Parker
He writes, records, performs and produces everything himself, mostly at home in Perth.
Q 19In which city did Tame Impala begin in 2007?
Perth
The project shares members with fellow psych-rockers Pond from the same isolated west-coast scene.
Q 20Silverchair formed in which New South Wales city?
Newcastle
They won a national demo competition in 1994 as teenagers and went on to 21 ARIA Awards, a record for a group.
Whispering Jack
It spent 25 weeks at number one on the back of 'You're the Voice'.
Q 25Which Olivia Newton-John single was Billboard's highest-ranking Hot 100 song of the 1980s?
Physical
She had already won a Record of the Year Grammy in 1974 for 'I Honestly Love You'.
Q 26Which pub rock band did Jimmy Barnes front before his solo career?
Cold Chisel
Their 1978 single 'Khe Sanh' is one of the most loved Australian songs, though it stalled on the charts at the time.
Q 27In which city was Jimmy Barnes born?
Glasgow
He has said he vividly remembers its slums; by 2022 he had 15 solo number-one albums in Australia, more than anyone.
Q 28Powderfinger formed in 1989 in which city?
Brisbane
Fronted by Bernard Fanning, they scored five straight number-one albums and eighteen ARIA Awards.
Q 29Who were the two members of Savage Garden?
Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones
They won a record ten ARIAs in 1997, and Jones later left music to become a real estate agent.
Q 30What were the original Wiggles studying at Macquarie University when they met?
Pre-school teaching
Anthony Field built the first album around early childhood education concepts, and the group never looked back.