In Aprill 2011, I was working on the far north coast of NSW. After considerable rainfall, many of the local estuaries that had been cut off from the ocean by an accumulation of sand now spilled across the beach as tannin stained water flowed to the sea. The overflows cut into the beach, creating new creeklike connections. The sounds here are of the fast flowing water across the beach and between debris, chunks of sand falling from the creek's edges into the water and distinct thunder as a new storm front approaches.
Make sure you pay a visit to the wonderful Site Listening website for a collection of sounds and locations in QLD compiled by Lawrence English (Room40, 12k, Touch).
Nightcap National Park contains extensive areas of lush Gondwana Rainforests and was preserved by a determined group of conservationists in the 1980s. These photos and recordings were made during a brief visit in April 2011 to Minyon Falls. The sound composition here contains a series of recordings made surrounding the creekline leading to the falls themslves. Surrounded by dense forest, there are bird calls (as well as an occasional frog croak) but dominating the recordings are the sounds of the falls themselves that create a background drone running through most of the piece.
Yalgorup National Park, located 100m from my front door, protects a chain of 10 lakes of high conservation importance. The park offers refuge to plant numbers of plants and animal species. Its particularly notable for its tuart woodlands, salt marsh communities, ancient thrombolites and international migratory waterbird species.
South Western Australia has undergone one of its hottest summers on record. Before the hot summer months we experienced one of the driest winters on record, with rainfall at approximately 50% below average levels.
As a result the Lake Preston and the surrounding Yalgorup Park are extremely dry. The lake is a barren almost moonscape like environment. I took a walk out on the lake a few days ago to take photos and some field recordings. It struck me on the walk home that 15 years ago this lake was used for waterskiing and sailing but in recent years the lake is dry in summer, devoid of water and filled with the a salty brine smell and the debris of bones, feathers and resilient salt marsh plant species. The sounds in the centre of the lake were limited to my footsteps, the wind and the distant hum of traffic from the nearby highway.
The international theme for World Wetlands Day 2011 is "wetlands and forests - forests for water and wetlands" in celebration of the United Nations International Year of Forests. In Australia, probably the best known forested wetlands are the mangrove forests that line the majority of our coastal rivers and estuaries. These wetlands are important as they deliver significant ecosystem services by providing habitat for a range of wildlife. In recent years, however, mangroves have been acknowledged as not being completely beneficial to estuarine wetlands given their propensity to invade coastal saltmarsh habitats and clog smaller tributaries, leading to impoundment of tidal waters and increased suitability of habitats for pest mosquitoes. Generally though, mangroves still represent an important ecological resource in many areas of Australia as well as internationally.
In celebration of World Wetlands Day (as well as teh 40th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention), I have put together this 15 minute piece comprised of recordings made over the last 6 months or so from the wetlands of Sydney Olympic Park. This track contains recordings made using hydrophones, stereo microphones and shot gun microphones in and around the estuarine and freshwater wetlands of Sydney Olympic Park. This large area of wetlands is located close to the geographic heart of Sydney, the largest city in Australia. The sounds of the city, planes and traffic leaking into the natural sound scape. For more information on Sydney Olympic Park, please visit their website.
For more information on World Wetlands Day, you can visit the Australian Government Environment website or to find out mroe details about international events, as well as the history of the RAMSAR Convention, you can visit the RAMAR site
