''I never thought it would be a particularly significant speech,'' he said. ''I had done hundreds of speeches for Paul and this was something I had written basically overnight. It turned out it was delivered on a slow news day.''

The address, which Mr Keating delivered in Redfern to launch the International Year for the World's Indigenous People, became the landmark ''Redfern Speech''.

The National Film and Sound Archive has announced that footage of the address will be added to the prestigious collection, along with 13 other items of national historical significance including Daddy Cool's Eagle Rock and Robert Menzies' 1939 announcement that Australia was at war with Germany.

Watson says that while he penned the words - including the confronting line, '' … It was we who did the dispossessing; we took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life; we brought the disasters'' - the credit belongs to Mr Keating for reading it, unedited.

''There was only one politician who had the courage and conviction to deliver it and that was Paul,'' he said. ''He had lots of political reasons for cutting bits out or altering it, but he didn't.''

Another inclusion is Norman May's legendary call of the 4 x 100 metres swimming medley at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It is one of the most exhilarating - and misquoted - pieces of sporting commentary in Australian history.

As Australian Neil Brooks and Sergey Koplyakov of the Soviet Union raced to the finish line, May's voice rose to a crescendo. ''Gold, gold to Australia, gold,'' he cried.

In the popular imagination, it was conflated with newspaper headlines that read simply ''Gold, gold, gold''. ''When I reach my terminus vitae, I'm going to be remembered for something I didn't say,'' laughed May.

''I was carried away by the atmosphere.''

Among the other additions to the archive are an episode of the Australian TV classic Pick A Box; the opening concert at the Sydney Opera House, conducted by Charles Mackerras; and songs by Col Joye, Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody.