``It was absolutely wonderful,'' Mr Davies said of the local events.

````I've been to a few very quiet Australia Day functions but this was great and there was a very large number of citizenship candidates.''

Mr Davies said his song Great Southern Land played a large part in his selection as Campbelltown's Australia Day ambassador.

But he said the inspiration for the song originally came when he was travelling overseas.

``It was the first thing I wrote after our first international tour,'' Mr Davies said.

``I got incredibly homesick and I remember the experience of flying across Australia and going to sleep over the desert and waking up and we were still across the desert.

``I was just stricken by the great size of Australia.''

The music legend, whose hits include Hey Little Girl, Electric Blue and the iconic Great Southern Land, gave the Australia Day address at Koshigaya Park and Ingleburn Community Centre.

``It's quite exciting that by writing a song I could become an Australia Day ambassador,'' he said in his address in Ingleburn.

``I've been encouraging my children to write songs so that they may become prime minister one day.''

Mr Davies also spoke about the meaning behind the words `Great southern land, they burn you black, black against the ground', which were inspired by something his father told him about Australia's bushfires.

``My father had just come back from fighting fires totally black and he said, `This country really needs fire.'''

Mr Davies said many of the seeds in the bush require a bush fire to break open and create new life.

Apart from delivering his address, Mr Davies also awarded the citizenship candidates their citizenship certificates with Mayor of Campbelltown Aaron Rule and cut the Australia Day cake.