Bob's question
there's a story/rumour/pholk myth around here (Sydney, Australia, where Wee Eric was based ... until he decided to concentrate on song writing, instead of accounting ... and moved to cheaper Adelaide, South Australia) that The Band Played Waltzing Matilda was entered in song contest in the early '70s. Apparently it came second - but nobody can remember the song that beat it!

I fear I am going to have to nail that one down while there still are people who may remember ...
followed by Suzanne's
He dug the song out again for a song festival in Brisbane. The judges placed him and Matilda third, but their decision caused a near-riot with the crowd who felt he should have won. The resulting publicity established Matilda.
and Bob's later memory of hearing it in 1970, all prompt my following memory.

At the 1974 National Folk Festival, held in Brisbane, there was an announcement of the winner of the songwriting contest. Eric performed at the main (Saturday night) concert and, during that performance, commented that his entry "And the band played Waltzing Matilda" had come second (as I recall, but I'm not nailing any colours to a mast over the ranking). He then performed it (with slightly different words to those on most recorded versions) as well as "Little Ice Queen"; he sang a third song which I can't recall at all. His introduction to ATBPWM included the quote on his web page (linked to above) and included similar statements to those quoted by Suzanne but he also made reference to the local (in Brisbane) barracks during Australian involvement in the War in Vietnam. This latter would support Bob's dating.

Incidentally, Eric's website above includes the statement that 50,000 Australian troops were killed during the Gallipoli campaign. If you included the British, New Zealand, Senegalese (often categorised as "French"), Indian and Australian troops you might make up close to 50,000 but the Australian casualty list was 60,000 for the whole of the Great War so you'd be better advised to seek statistics from a site like the Australian War Memorial or the Imperial War Museum.

You're right when you say nobody can remember what won the songwriting prize.

Cheers, Rowan