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Gallery: Australia Unites

Orlando Bloom manned the phones, Farnsy even dropped in unannounced. But over $21M was raised for the real stars of the night- survivors of the Victorian bushfires.

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au30It may have been a star-studded affair, but it was a night for the survivors, as a concert in Whittlesea brought smiles to the faces of those lucky enough to attend a free concert.

They were but a few of the survivors of the disastrous fires that had impacted on communities right across the State of Victoria.

Television, film, music, radio, fashion and sporting stars came out in force for the Nine Network’s Australia Unites, leaving behind network alliances and helping to raise a whopping figure of $21,502,485 by 2.15am.

Orlando Bloom was manning phones, Russell Crowe organised a benefit in NSW, while messages of support were sent from Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Simon Baker, kd lang, Rachel Griffiths and Rob Lowe, Ellen deGeneres, Anthony LaPaglia and Gia Carides, Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness and Cameron Daddo.

Performers included Men at Work, Jimmy Barnes, The Living End, Lee Kernaghan, Jessica Mauboy, Kate Ceberano and Shannon Noll, Angry Anderson and John Williamson.

Numerous television celebrities were on hand, frpm present, past and several from TEN. Prime Minister Rudd, Premier John Brumby, Christine Nixon, radio’s Neil Mitchell, Ross Stevenson and John Farnham all chatted with host Eddie McGuire.

While special thanks go to all involved in this event, particularly volunteers, it is the CFA firefighters and emergency workers who deserve absolute praise this week.

All funds go to the Red Cross.

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24 Responses

  1. the reason i think it could of been put forward as the biggest night in Australian Television maybe because it broke an Australian Telethon record for the amount of donations it attracted. The ratings could of been better, yes it went on all night – cant expect much more than that really – but i think it will be remembered in history as the biggest night in Australian television to raise the highest amount of money in such a small period of time.. – And for that, im sure the people of Victoria’s 7000 odd (bushfire) homeless are more than grateful…

    Congratulations on a great program, very entertaining – i havent seen much on the channel 7 telethon that was advertised a small amount in my area lately, has it been on yet? The Advertising for it hasnt caught my eye yet again….thanks

  2. To get the cd that was promoted at the telethon, it will be released this coming week. Order it from ur music store.

    Proceeds will for to the Salvos Bush Fire Appeal

    These are the tracks that are on the cd.

    Bushfire Aid – Artists for the Bushfire Appeal
    Bruce Springsteen ‘The Rising’ Shannon Noll & Natalie Bassingthwaighte “Don’t Give Up’ Billy Joel ‘Honesty’ Beyonce ‘Halo’ Empire Of The Sun ‘Walking On A Dream’ Midnight Oil ‘One Country’ Lee Kernaghan ‘Spirit Of The Bush’ Vanessa Amorosi ‘Shine’ Hoodoo Gurus ‘Castles In The Air’ John Butler Trio ‘Better Than’ Jessica Mauboy ‘Time After Time’ Justin Timberlake ‘Losing My Way’ Eurythmics ‘Miracle Of Love’ John Williamson ‘True Blue’ Hunters & Collectors ‘Holy Grail’ Wes Carr ‘You’ Bill Withers ‘Lean On Me’ Icehouse ‘Great Southern Land’ The Living End ‘White Noise’ Jimmy Barnes ‘Working Class Man’ Powderfinger ‘These Days’ Rose Tattoo ‘We Can’t Be Beaten’ Pete Murray ‘Saving Grace’ John Farnham ‘You’re The Voice’ Men At Work ‘Down Under’ Kasey Chambers ‘This Flower’ Paul Kelly ‘Leaps & Bounds’ Delta Goodrem ‘Believe Again’ Anthony Callea ‘The Prayer’ Whitney Houston ‘The Greatest Love Of All’ Dido ‘Here With Me’ Westlife ‘You Raise Me Up’ Jennifer Rush ‘The Power Of Love’ Newton Faulkner ‘Dream Catch Me’ Noiseworks ‘Touch’

  3. I am not a fan of Eddie but i thougth he did a fantastic job. And whilst yea they did promote some of their shows they also promoted Ruch and Rove on TEN and the AFL last night on 7, which i thougth was just brilliant. Great to see the solid ratings, but the most pleasing part was to 21 plus million raised

  5. JM, I did say that the ratings were solid. I was just questioning Eddie’s silly comment about it being the biggest night in Australian television, which clearly it wasn’t. Like you, I’m pleased that they raised so much money, which was the purpose after all.

  6. Nikki Osborne was there but unfortunately they didn’t talk to her:(

    And with Miranda Kerr in the same room surely Orlando was confused! lol

    Eddie was shameless as per usual!

  7. ducko the ratings were pretty decent for a show that ran from 7:30pm till midnight (or later i went to bed at 11:30pm)…. and anyway it wasnt about the ratings…. it was about the donations!!

  8. I thought it was great. Fantastic to hear of kiddies raiding their piggy bank to give what they had so those now less fortunate have a chance to get back to normality. I’d love to know where I can purchase the CD. Don’t reckon that was “plugged” enough. Sales = $$$ to those who are in need. If anyone knows where it can be purchased, please post so we can rush out & buy it !!

  9. Pretty good show. Though every time Eddie opens his mouth I think there is a football match on somewhere. He cannot vary his tone from that boring monotonous Footy Show voice IMO.

  10. my children and i watched the show and thought by the grace of god, that could be us or someone we know. it showed that we do have a great spirit as australians. i thank those who can afford to donate large sums of money as i cannot, but i the small amounts count too. where can we get the cd eddie showed? i think it was called bushfire appeal.

  12. It’s good to see that they raised so much money during the telethon. I thought they wouldn’t raise as much considering nearly $50 million was already donated for the cause but people still donated what they could. It was a very good effort by all who were involved and all who donated to the telethon appeal.

  13. Yeah Andrew B – Ellen’s partner, Portia, has a lot of family in the area. She sent out her love and support to those fighting the fires and those affected by it at the start of her program yesterday.

    She also played the koala clip :P.

  14. i thought it was a great night, lots of great celebs, heaps of money raised, and some good stories. before it i though i had donated all that i intended to, but this just made me want to donate more. so i gave another $200 that i wouldn’t have if it weren’t for this program. and i’m sure i was not the only one.

    if i have to make one complaint i would say that there was way to much self promotion which just seemed inappropiate. i mean they can kill themselves with self promotion during singing bee, ACA, 60 mins, ect but it made me cringe here. there was promotion for ACA, today, the footy show, sea patrol, the mentalist, domestic blitz, and they mentioned 3 times that underbelly broke records. and it was a bit of a call for eddie to say “this has been the biggest night in australian television” i’d like to see on what basis.

  15. To wamdue, Ellen isn’t from Australia, her partner Portia is, and she has family in and around Geelong I think.

    Well done to 9 and Eddie for putting on an entertaining show and raising an extra 21 million.

  16. I watch it and Eddie did a good job. I cry a bit, and then I laughed alot. It was a good to the fire victims smiling, laughing and dancing. Eddie even thanked other TV stations and plugged channel 10 shows. I am surprised that I didn’t see Bert there, I think it would have been good to see him and Rove together. Hamish and Andy made laugh. It was very nice to oversea Aussie stars joining forces in this bad time.

  18. Eddie even plugged a couple of 10 shows, Rush and Rove. Good to see Farnsy take a break from his retirement. I never picked him for the type to actually retire, but he seems pretty happy with his lot. The jokes at Wheatley’s expense were good fun, although Farnsy seemed to get a little annoyed with Eddie for harping on a bit.

  20. I caught some of this show and I thought it was quite entertaining.

    What pleased me was that even though it covered a very tragic event, it had an overall atmosphere of optimism and hope.

    All of the artists joined in the spirit of the event and attempted to keep the mood light but respectful of the occassion.

    It was great the the songs artists sang were not mournful ones, but more a celebration of the Aussie spirit.

    Eddie did a pretty good job too – and it was great that so much was raised for a very worthy cause.

    Sometimes Ch 9 do get things right – which makes a change!!!

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