It might have begun as a punchline, but Oliver John Cameron has successfully turned an irreverent university chamber musical about Pauline Hanson into a serious career as a contemporary composer.

A decade ago, Cameron was creator of The Colour Orange , an eight-track musical satire based on highlights of Hanson’s political journey. As bill posters cheekily declared: “One Woman. One Nation.”

David Rowden and Oliver John Cameron Steven Siewert

That show serendipitously led to Adelaide Fringe and more recently Cameron’s selection for a “finishing school” for Australia’s next generation of composers with Omega Ensemble – a contemporary chamber outfit – as an inaugural recipient of Omega’s new Composer Accelerator Residency in partnership with the Bundanon Trust this June.

Now, Cameron is developing a chamber piece that will serve as an unlikely fusion of pop and opera with a touch of Eurovision. He hopes to take it overseas.

“It’s a work about a reality television episode,” Cameron says.…