The 2000s was the decade in which established acts such as Powderfinger, Grinspoon and Silverchair confirmed their status as some of Australia’s finest-ever alt-rock outfits. Powderfinger hit a purple patch with their career-defining LPs Odyssey Number Five (featuring “Like a Dog”) and Vulture Street (“[Baby I’ve Got You] On My Mind”); Silverchair cast off their grunge past with the wildly colourful and musically daring Diorama (led by first single “The Greatest View”); and Grinspoon’s “Chemical Heart” proved there was more to the Lismore outfit than thrashy punk songs about dead cats. But for all the old guard’s success—and you can include Something for Kate (“Déjà-Vu”), The Living End (“One Said to the Other”) and You Am I (“Kick a Hole in the Sky”) in that group—it was a younger breed of bands that truly took Australian rock ’n’ roll to the world. Jet (“Rollover D.J.”), The Vines (“Get Free”) and Wolfmother (“Mind’s Eye”) repurposed old-school rock for a new generation, racing up the global charts alongside international contemporaries such as The Hives and The Strokes. With the notable exception of Silverchair, INXS and Savage Garden in the ’90s, this was the first time Australian rock bands had dominated the global charts since the glory days of Men At Work, Midnight Oil and AC/DC in the ’80s. Perhaps even more exciting, though, was the tidal wave of new alt-rock acts snapping at their heels, some of whom would go on to become mainstays of the Australian music scene (Birds of Tokyo, Eskimo Joe and Augie March), and some whose star would burn bright before fading (pop-rockers Skulker, nu-metal outfit Sunk Loto and agit-punkers Blueline Medic). And while all the acts on this playlist may belong loosely under the alt-rock banner, it’s worth noting the diversity on display, whether it be in the shape of emerging singer-songwriters such as Sarah Blasko (“All Coming Back”) and Josh Pyke (“Memories & Dust”); art-rock titans such as The Sleepy Jackson (“Vampire Racecourse”) and The Drones (“Shark Fin Blues”); post-punk agitators such as Gyroscope (“Safe Forever”) and The Nation Blue (“We Lost Everything”); or the mature indie-rock musings of Youth Group (“Forever Young”) and the more muscular Motor Ace (“Death Defy”). In the 2000s, Australia’s national musical identity was transforming, with the international success of Wolfmother, Jet and The Vines signalling a changing of the rock ’n’ roll guard. As the 100 songs on this playlist attest, however, the quality of the country’s alt-rock output was truly world-class.