God Save the Queen was our anthem until 1984, when the dirge (Advance Australia Fair) won out in a national competition. I like the bit about the Scots, although I would have written more about pinching pennies...
Some dropped verses frm Advance Australia Fair include:
Should foreign foe e'er sight our coast,
Or dare a foot to land,
We'll rouse to arms like sires of yore,
To guard our native strand;
Britannia then shall surely know,
Though oceans roll between,
Her sons in fair Australia's land
Still keep their courage green.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.
and
When gallant Cook from Albion sailed,
To trace wide oceans o'er,
True British courage bore him on,
Til he landed on our shore.
Then here he raised Old England's flag,
The standard of the brave;
"With all her faults we love her still"
"Britannia rules the wave."
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.
We really sort of sucked up to the Empire for a while....
@persia
Just because Franko is banned doesn't mean there are no Scots left. I'll be as rebelious as I like thank you very much. 
I find it intriguing that of that dirge you pick the only verse that has been deleted.
As for the topic. I was always lead to believe that English was easy to learn. So far as I can tell about 1/3 of it is French anyway.
I haven't studied any French for over 20 years, but oddly I am better now than I was then. I put this down to spending some time in a French speaking country and having an appreciation of French film.
