“For many, Sculthorpe defined what it meant to be an Australian composer and defined a uniquely Australian sound. … He would become our most acclaimed contemporary composer, admired for pieces like his 1960s series Irkanda – ‘scrub country’ – … and later work such as Kakadu (1988), Memento Mori (1993) and the Rites of Passage, originally commissioned for the opening of the Sydney Opera House.”