West Australian Opera worked on a song about Lake Joondalup as a commission for the Joondalup Festival 2025. The song is known as Joondalup Warangka (Joondalup Song), and the City of Joondalup lists the downloadable file as Lake Joondalup – The Lake that Glistens. The commission belongs to the 2025 festival, not to a 2026 announcement.
What the commission was
The City of Joondalup places the work inside Joondalup Festival 2025 and describes it as a song for the community and future generations. Its arts and culture page presents the project under the heading “A song for Joondalup”. The festival program describes the same commission more plainly as a song about Lake Joondalup, which is the most precise description of its subject.
Who made it
The City names four collaborators. The festival program names three of them, which is consistent with the City’s account rather than a conflict between the two:
- West Australian Opera, the commissioning company’s partner on the project
- Gina Williams, singer-songwriter
- Guy Ghouse, singer-songwriter
- Boox Kid, producer, named by the City only
West Australian Opera’s role
West Australian Opera describes itself as a professional opera company established in 1967. It says it commissions and develops new work, stages events in metropolitan and regional areas, and runs education and community programs. Those activities explain its involvement in a community song, but the City is the more direct authority on who collaborated and how the project began. Readers who want the company’s own description can read its About WAO page.
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- P/V/G
- Pages: 72
- Instrumentation: Vocal
- Instrumentation: Piano/Vocal
Whose stories shaped the song, and its language
According to the City, the project drew inspiration from the stories and experiences of local residents. The City describes the finished work as a blend of Noongar language and contemporary music that pays homage to Lake Joondalup’s significance in Noongar culture and history. Those are the City’s and the artists’ framings. They are not independent historical findings, and this article does not extend them into further claims about the lake’s past.
The festival program includes an artist statement attributed to Gina Williams AM:
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- Easy Piano - Bill Boyd
- Pages: 80
- Instrumentation: Piano/Keyboard
“The song we have composed captures the spirit and magic of this place. The moonlight casting a magical glow over the evening water. If you watch carefully you might catch a glimpse of Djondals’ silvery strands of hair. And if you stop and listen you might hear the chant of our ancestors, or the soft padding of feet dancing in the sand. Kalyakoorl, ngalak warangka. Forever we sing.”
That excerpt is poetic artist language. It describes the feeling the artists hoped to convey about the place. It is not a factual account of Noongar history, and the Noongar words in it are presented without translation in the program.
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- Easy to Intermediate Piano Solo
- Pages: 232
- Level: Lower Intermediate
- Instrumentation: Piano
How to hear and get the song
Listening installation (2025 only)
The 2025 festival program listed a free listening installation at Neil Hawkins Park Jetty, open daily from 8am to 6pm between 15 March and 5 April 2025. Those are historical dates for the 2025 festival. They are not instructions for a current or future listening session.
Free downloads from the City
The City’s arts and culture page offers the song, its lyrics and its musical score as free downloads. This is the most durable way to access the work, because it does not depend on a festival date or venue. The downloadable song is listed under the title Lake Joondalup – The Lake that Glistens.
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- Piano/Vocal Selections
- Pages: 82
- Instrumentation: Piano/Vocal/Guitar
Which festival year is which
The title of this topic refers to the commission, so the year matters. The table below separates the 2025 commission from the 2026 festival news.
| Item | Dates | What it establishes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joondalup Festival 2025 commission | Festival 2025; listening period 15 March to 5 April 2025, 8am to 6pm daily | The song was commissioned for and presented within the 2025 festival. | Joondalup Festival Program 2025 (PDF) |
| Joondalup Festival 2026 | 7 to 22 March 2026 | Current festival chronology. It does not establish that the song was recommissioned or presented again in 2026. | City of Joondalup news, 2026 festival |
What the public record does not establish
- Audience or impact figures. The City and festival pages cited here publish no attendance, participation or impact figures for the song.
- A 2026 presentation. The 2026 festival dates do not show that the song was performed or commissioned again.
- Independent historical claims. The Noongar cultural framing comes from the City and the artists. It has not been verified here as a historical account.
Not the same as the YOUnity Project
West Australian Opera also runs a separate initiative, the YOUnity Project. That project names singer-songwriter Jude York as commissioned to compose two original songs for regional and remote LGBTIQA+ youth. It is not the Joondalup commission and should not be cited as its source.
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- Piano Solo
- Pages: 56
- Instrumentation: Piano/Keyboard
Getting involved in future festivals
The festival’s Get Involved page invites artists and creatives to submit an expression of interest, and asks local businesses that want to join the festival to contact its team. The page does not guarantee a paid role, a future commission or selection.
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