Lockley, who describes himself as “an enthusiastic patriot”, is producing a new signature event for the Australia Day Council of NSW called “Celebrate Australia!” The free family concert begins at 5pm with a musical show for children called Lah-Lah’s Big Live Band.

It then kicks up its heels with Lockley’s Ballads of the Bush: a rollicking collection of musical settings of our best-loved poems such as Clancy of the Overflow and The Man From Ironbark as well as popular ballads like Along the Road to Gundagai and Click Go the Shears.

The evening culminates with Lockley’s ambitious but accessible and uplifting Symphony of Australia, which aims to tell the history of this great “wide brown land” of ours through music.

The first five movements depict landmark moments in the history of Australia, each introduced by a narrator. The first called Dreamtime tells the story of the Rainbow Serpent and the creation of the land with evocative, minimal music somewhat reminiscent of Peter Sculthorpe.

The second movement, The Ships, is about the arrival of the First Fleet. It features a convict reflecting on the home he has left behind and the harrowing journey to Botany Bay and conjures the sounds of Port Jackson with the pipe and drum of the Marines, the first sermon by the Reverend Richard Jackson and the indigenous reaction to the arrival of the white man.

The Red Centre conjures the ill-fated expedition of explorers Burke and Wills across the harshly beautiful, unforgiving terrain under a merciless sun.

The fourth movement, Pie Jesu, in which a mother receives a letter informing her of her son’s death on the battlefields of World War I, is a lyrical lament for all Australians who have sacrificed their lives in war.

In the fifth movement, Immigration Scherzo, Lockley uses the Australian National Anthem as a musical template to embrace the rich and varied musical styles and sounds of the many nationalities that make up our nation, in celebration of our multi-cultural identity.

The symphony culminates, in rousing fashion, with an extended version of My Country Australia, which brought audiences to their feet at the Sydney Opera House premiere.

Shortly after the premiere, Lockley was discussing his symphony and Australian poetry with Australian author Colleen McCullough when she threw her head back and recited: “And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended” from Banjo Paterson’s Clancy of the Overflow, adding “now that’s poetry!”

Inspired, Lockley set Paterson’s poem to music. Pleased with the result, he composed tunes for other iconic Australian poems, which he gathered together with various existing ballads under the title Ballads of the Bush.

While touring New Zealand early last year in Opera Australia’s new production of My Fair Lady, Lockley showed some of them to Maunder, the show’s director.

“I listened to them and I have to say I fell in love with them,” says Maunder. “I thought they were great settings.”

In fact, he was so impressed that he agreed to appear as one of the soloists when Ballads of the Bush had its premiere at the City Recital Hall in Sydney last October.

Maunder won’t be singing at “Celebrate Australia!”. Instead he will be focussing his energy on directing the event, which includes live footage of the performance on large screens as well as video imagery relating to the Symphony.

Composing is a relatively new string to Lockley’s bow. Born into a decidedly musical family, he and his sister sang with their parents in a family quartet from a young age.

He began his professional career as the young Gavroche in the Australian premiere production of Les Misérables for Cameron Mackintosh. He studied for a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium and then undertook a Masters Degree in Germany.

A gifted singer, he has performed with the Opera Australia chorus in various Gilbert and Sullivan productions. In 2003, he joined the renowned act The Three Waiters and in 2004 made his debut recording for the ABC as conductor/singer performing the works of Hanns Eisler.

Lockley performed on the Anthony Warlow and Lesley Garrett Australian tour of The Magic of Music and was a supporting artist for the Russell Watson Australasian tour of Amore Musica.

Assistant conductor on the opera Dead Man Walking in Sydney in 2007, he is currently working with Colleen McCullough on a musical adaptation of her novel Morgan’s Run.

Right now, Lockley is consumed by his passionate commitment to Celebrate Australia!

“We’re going to try and do it every year,” he says, “and build it as we go.”