Skip to Main Content
site header image

Harvard Referencing (Australian Government Author-date style)

Box Hill Institute will be changing the Harvard Referencing style to the standard for Australian Government writing and editing in 2026.

Songs and short pieces

Place the titles of songs in single quotation marks in sentence case. 

In-text Citation

At the concert, the school kids mimed actions accompanying the chorus to 'Home among the gumtrees'. 

Jack O'Hagan wrote 'Along the road to Gundagai' in 1922 and was first performed by Peter Dawson in 1924. 

Reference List

if you are referring to a song from an album, reference it in this format at the end of your assignment: 

Creator C (Year) ‘Title of song’ [Medium], Title of compilation or album, Name of Publisher.

Captain Rock (1975) 'Home among the gumtrees' [Song], Buried treasure, Mushroom Records. 

Dawson, P (2009) 'Along the road to Gundagi' [Song], Songs of Australia, Timeless Music Company. 

Albums and compilations

Use italics and sentence case for the titles of albums, compilations, soundtracks, playlists and collections. For individual pieces on the album, use single quotation marks.

In-text Citation

The first single from You Am I's Hi fi way was 'Cathy's clown'. The intro was lifted from 'Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey' by The Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. But the direct steal was from a version that the Hoodoo Gurus did on a live to air broadcast which appeared on a compilation album called Bite the bullet - director's cut

Reference List

Beatles, The (1968) The beatles [Album], Apple Records

Hoodoo Gurus (1998) Bite the bullet - director's cut [Album], Mushroom Records

You Am I (1995) Hi fi way [Album], Ra Records

Lyrics

When you cite lyrics in a text, write the name of the author, name of the song, and the year of publication in parentheses. 

In-text Citation

Mark Seymour sang, 'You don't make me feel like I'm a woman anymore!' while fifteen hundred beer swilling macho blokes bellowed along in unison (Hunters & Collectors, 'Say goodbye' 1986).

In the final line of the album, Darren Hanlon sings, 'Now we disappear / What will we miss the most; the feel of sun, the taste of beer?' (What can we say? 2010).

In the song Emily, Joanna Newsom (2004) sings about her sister, 'The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever'.

As the song 'My my, hey hey (out of the blue)' claims, 'It's better to burn out / than to fade away' (Neil Young 1979).

Reference List

Hanlon D (2010) 'What can we say?' [Song], I will love you at all, Yep Roc. 

Hunters & Collectors (1986) 'Say goodbye' [Song], Human frailty, I.R.S. Records. 

Newsom, J (2004) 'Emily' [Song], Ys, Drag City. 

Young N (1979) 'My my, hey hey (out of the blue)' [Song], Rust never sleeps, Reprise Records. 

Long works or series

Long works include operas, ballets and musicals. They may consist of a collection of shorter pieces. Use italics and sentence case for the titles of long works. If the title is in a language other than English, refer to it in the original language.

In-text Citation

Many people know Australian tenor Kenneth Neate as Loge in Das Rheingold. But his repertoire was not just confined to opera. He also sang in such works as Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand and Das Lied von der Erde

Reference List

Neate K (n.d.) Ken neate [Album], Rococo Records. 

Unnamed compositions

For compositions with no given name, do not use quotation marks or italics. Always use a capital letter for the key of musical compositions but don’t capitalise the generic type of composition.

In-text Citation

The piano concerto no 8 in C major was written by Mozart in 1776. 

Haydn wrote 68 string quartets, nearly triple that of Mozart and Beethoven. 

Reference List

Mozart W A, Engel K, Hager, L & Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (1975) Mozart: complete piano concertos [Album], Warner Music.