AWSRG Workshops
Oct
3
2024
Bowra 2024 campout report
by Andrew Skeoch
The AWSRG’s biennial gathering has recently been held at Bowra Reserve in southern Queensland.
Like our event two years ago at Gluepot, it was a self-sufficient campout affair. Unlike Gluepot however, when storms constrained attendees to camp, the weather at Bowra was kinder, with only a little rain and some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.
Despite the relative remoteness of our chosen location, 17 members attended, and it was wonderful to have some of the elders of our tribe present – Bob Tomkins, David Stewart, Kerry Watson and Fred van Gessel. Also heartening was the company of (relatively) younger attendees, including Ashley Walker from Adelaide, Russell Wyatt (accompanying Fred), and Mike Fitzgerald’s daughter Clem.
Front row: David Stewart, Clem Fitzgerald, Marg & Jeff Eller, Rob Garbutt, Tony Baylis, Fred van Gessel and Mike Fitzgerald.
Missing (as they had to leave before we got our act together for this photo): Arwen Ximenes, Sharon Knott & Kerry Watson.
Bowra (an Australian Wildlife Conservancy property) protects a mosaic of dry country habitats: a variety of woodlands including mulga, plus grasslands, rocky ridges, and a number of perennial wetlands which provide refuge in times of drought.
It’s no surprise then that the place is renowned for its birding. We had a resident Spotted Bowerbird in camp, a pair of Hobbies active nearby, Brown Treecreepers foraging almost underfoot, and on the first morning a Pink Cockatoo flyover was a good sign. Even a short dawn walk from camp provided good recording opportunities – Purple-back Fairy-wrens, Pied Honeyeaters, crakes (if you were lucky), some very active Rufous Songlarks, and I enjoyed documenting the local dialect of Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters.
Also nearby was a small wetland area alive with frogs. On the first evening, David counted upwards of eight species, however over successive days, and for no reason we could discern, they quietened down considerably. Meanwhile, Willie Wagtails which had been quiet previously, decided they’d begin singing continually overnight, a mixed blessing for those camped near their roost trees.
During the days, from our base at the campground, we’d set off to explore the reserve. Driving through the landscape, emus with cohorts of chicks were abundant, as were groups of red kangaroos lounging around. The riparian areas around the wetlands provided the most diversity of species, with many breeding. For me, seeing and hearing Plum-headed Finches for the first time was a highlight. But even the drier rocky ridges had their rewards, with Hall’s Babblers attracting several of us to try recording them, with varying success.
Most afternoons, we convened in the shed for an informal program of talks. Bob shared his trials of recording in gale force winds on sub-Antarctic islands, Tony recounted his expeditions to the cloudforests of PNG’s Huon Peninsular, Neil gave an introduction to AI, and I presented an interpretation of the dawn chorus as a collective avian behaviour. On the final day we had an animated and positive discussion about the group’s future, particularly in light of the journal being discontinued.
While the knowledge sharing, natural surroundings and recording opportunities were all enjoyable, our gatherings are really about conviviality and reconnecting as friends. And by that measure, it was a truly memorable week.
Jun
29
2024
2024 Campout
Bowra Nature Reserve – 9th-13th September
The AWSRG biennial gathering will be held this year at Bowra (Australian Wildlife Conservancy) Nature Reserve in south-west Queensland.
As with our 2022 gathering at Gluepot, this will be a BYO field meeting style event, with camping only.
Toilets and hot water showers are provided for campers.
Timings:
Arrive Sunday 8th Sept. – Depart Saturday 14th Sept.
Note: Check-in at Bowra is from 2pm till 5pm daily.
Camping costs:
Powered site – 1 vehicle per site, 1 person: $30/day, additional adult $10/day. There are only two powered sites (one already taken).
Unpowered site – 1 vehicle per site, 1 person: $15/day, additional adult $10/day
Day visitors – Per vehicle $15/day
Accommodation is also available in Cunnamulla ranging from $130 to $170 per night for those that do not want to camp. However please note there is a curfew on vehicle movements within the reserve from dusk to first light, so anyone travelling to and from Cunnamulla will have to factor that in to their access.
Bookings, Payments:
There is no cost to attend from the AWSRG, only your camping fees payable to Bowra NR.
Bowra is not accepting online bookings for our gathering. Payment is by cash only on the day of arrival, so please have the correct amount with you in an envelope when checking in.
We will need to know numbers of attendees. To indicate your interest or enquire further, please contact Jeff –
mob: 0439 091 778
email: awsrgtres@gmail.com
Catering:
There will be no arranged catering for this gathering. Attendees will need to bring all food and personal supplies with them, so please think self sufficient.
There is a small bar fridge but it can only hold a certain amount. If you have a fridge in your vehicle, you’re encouraged to use that instead.
Cooking facilities are also very limited – we may have access to a small cooktop, and there is a microwave. Once again, preferable if you use cooking facilities in your vehicle.
We may purchase some morning/afternoon tea supplies collectively.
Facilities:
The shearing shed will be available to us for meetings and social events. It has 240V for charging phones, batteries etc.
The group’s data projector will be available, plus a stereo audio system. There is also a TV screen that will accept a USB input.
Presentations from members are welcomed, and can be delivered via USB stick or from your own laptop (HDMI or VGA input)
There is WiFi and internet near the shearing shed, and there is variable but good mobile phone access across the property.
Please note – there are no open fires allowed on Bowra Reserve.
Dec
29
2023
AWSRG Victorian Gathering, 11/12th Nov 2023
by Roslyn Oades
Creeping along the hilly, dirt road to Strangways in regional Victoria, I was quite unsure what to expect.
I signed up as a member of Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group several years ago during Melbourne lockdowns. I’d enjoyed listening to their recordings, reading their articles, following group email exchanges, and on one occasion attending a fascinating online listening party, with audio accompanied by spectrograms. But, to be blunt, I was mostly an online AWSRG lurker. When it came to their in-person field excursions, I felt too much of an imposter to attend. However, on this occasion, the gathering was only a couple of hours from home, so I decided to take the plunge…
Following the directions I’d been sent, I took a left at the old ‘Land for Wildlife’ sign and pulled up at a charming mud-brick house surrounded by bushland. I was greeted by Andrew Skeoch, the AWSRG’s president, whose insightful new book I’d just begun reading. Andrew had generously opened his home to an enthusiastic group of AWSRG field-recordists for the weekend – both novices and experts alike. I fell into the novice end – highly curious, and with a lot to learn.
My adventures in sound over the next two days blew my mind. Our friendly group of around a dozen included several musicians, audio engineers, academics, a sound designer, a bird watcher and a few other field-recording novices like myself. One thing we all had in common was a passion for nature recordings and the technology that allows us to document natural environments with fidelity. The weekend was full of generous exchanges of knowledge, artistic sharing, close listening, ample food and warm company – while also managing to be very relaxed.
Highlights included experiencing one of Vicki Hallett’s responsive environmental music improvisations on clarinet in the bush at dusk on Saturday:
Earlier in the day, we’d also been introduced to the work of the Bowerbird Collective – two classical musicians who (by a serendipitous coincidence) were performing a duo concert of environmentally-themed music nearby in Maldon that afternoon. After they’d dropped by to join us for lunch and speak about their work, we attended the concert which featured nature audio and video woven among the live music.
The following morning, several of us rose early to record the dawn chorus, each using our own recorders, allowing a comparison of equipment. A small group of Brown-headed Honeyeaters chipped in the canopy overhead, while a Scarlet Robin, Bronzewing Pigeon, Magpies, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and White-throated Treecreepers called not far off.
Back in Andrew’s studio, we compared our recording methods and learned about audio processing techniques using Isotope RX.
I came home from my adventure in Strangways feeling inspired, nurtured and energised – and with a new list of listening and reading materials to dive into. I was so appreciative of this opportunity, and in particular, the warm hospitality and generosity of spirit I encountered among the AWSRG community. I look forward to attending another gathering in future, and recommend any fellow AWSRG lurkers to do the same.
Jun
27
2021
AWSRG Winter Listening Party
Join us for an AWSRG Winter Listening Party.
Wednesday, July 14th at 7.00pm AEST
This will an opportunity to gather, chat and share recordings. Contribute a recording or two to the evening by sending audio no later than 24hrs beforehand (possibly via WeTransfer.com) to: listeningearth (you know the symbol) gmail (dot) com.
Registration is free but required to access the meeting link
Jan
30
2021
Pied Butcherbird Song with Hollis Taylor
Our February AWSRG seminar will be a talk by Hollis Taylor on her research into the songs of the Pied Butcherbird.
Jul
19
2019
Smiths Lake nature sound conference report
The AWSRG’s 2019 conference has just been held on the shores of beautiful Smiths Lake on the NSW coast. Thirty of us gathered for the week, and whilst nature was the common bond, as a group we represented considerable diversity; experienced recordists to beginners, science researchers to artists, newcomers to some of those original members who began the group in the 1980s.
L-R: Janeene Willis, Arwen Ximenes, Marg Eller, Sue Boardman, James Harris, Michael Hannan, Bruce Robertson, Leah Barclay, Jurian Hoogewerff, Nicole Carol, Elena Gorgeva, Tim Duck, Virginia Hillyard, David Secombe, Sue Gould, Sophie Hoogewerff, Melinda Barrie, Rob Garbutt, Doug Quin, Rod Thorn, David Stewart, Michelle Scully, Graeme Chapman, Mike Fitzgerald, Andrew Skeoch & Jeff Eller (absent: Sharon Nott, Diana Hodge, Neil Boucher & Clem Fitzgerald)
May
14
2019
Draft Program – AWSRG Workshop 2019
The AWSRG’s 2019 workshop (July 8-12) will be a week of immersive listening, nature sound recording, field craft and artistic engagement with nature.
Our venue, at the University of NSW’s field station at Smiths Lake on the north central NSW coast, will put us in the midst of habitats including subtropical rainforest, eucalypt woodlands, coastal heaths, wetlands and beaches. The perfect place to explore a range of sonic environments and how to record them.
Our keynote facilitator will be Prof Douglas Quin, from Syracuse University in New York. As a recordist, Doug has travelled widely and pretty much done it all, from terrestrial soundscapes and contact microphone work, to the extreme field practice he has undertaken in Antarctica. He’s used these recordings in film sound design, composition and installations. That is quite a breadth of experience, which Doug shares openly with warmth and clarity – he’s a born educator.
Doug will be joined by local experts in a program that will focus strongly on field craft and practical skills. Leah Barclay will lead a hydrophone lab, allowing us to explore nearby aquatic environments, from marine to freshwater. Dave Secomb, Andrew Skeoch, Sue Gould and others will conduct field sessions in terrestrial recording skills. And when it comes to documenting individual species vocalisations, we will be in the company of three of this countries most experienced naturalists; David Stewart, Graeme Chapman and Fred van Gessel.
These activities will allow us to get hands on with how to use a range of microphones and recorders. Once indoors, this will be complimented by sessions demonstrating software and the dark arts of digital magic for editing, processing, publishing & archiving.
Beginning with a presentation by local ornithologist Mick Roderick on the environmental significance of the local area, we’ll enjoy a week of fascinating talks. Among topics will be honeyeater dialects, anthropogenic noise and acoustic sanctuaries, gull subspecies, soundscape aesthetics, communication in flying fox colonies, zoömusicology, sonic recognition systems, birdsong mimicry and compositional practices. Graeme and David will lead a forum on the perceived decline of passerine populations, and sound artists will discuss how they communicate conservation values through creativity. It’ll be a wide palate of ideas, fostering discussion across arts and sciences.
After a full day, we’ll relax of an evening with a program of live music performances and film screenings curated by Leah, utilising an immersive multi-channel playback system. This will be rounded out with an informal sharing of member’s activities, trips and adventures. We may even entice Doug to tell us exactly how he recorded one of the most extraordinary of all nature’s sounds; the vocalisations of Weddell Seals under the Antarctic sea ice.
As much as the program is shaping up to be memorable, it is the people and relaxed atmosphere at an AWSRG gathering that make it so much fun. And of course, the food. After working up an appetite, we’ll be settling down to a convivial sharing of gourmet cuisine from a talented local chef.
It will be an engaging week and a revitalising sharing of nature. We look forward to meeting old friends and new.
Bookings, costs, accommodation and catering arrangements
Poorly fed sound recordists resort to eating their microphone…
Mar
1
2019
AWSRG 2019 Workshop / Conference Dates
Dates for the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group’s 2019 conference / workshop are now confirmed. Specific details and logistics for the event are still coming together, but in the meantime, please make a note of dates in your calendars.
8th – 12th July, 2019
UNSW Field Station, Smiths Lake, NSW.
Our gathering will be week of listening to the natural world – sharing the skills and experience of nature sound recording for a variety of purposes, ranging from scientific research, to artistic responses and personal enjoyment.
Our venue will be the UNSW Field Research Station, located on the southwest shore of Smiths Lake, part of the Myall Lakes region on the central NSW coast. It is around 100km north of Newcastle and 35km south of Forster.
This location offers us a huge range of opportunities for wildlife sound recording, encompassing ocean and coastal, saltwater to freshwater lake habitats, and extensive tracts of sandy coastal heath, swamps, sclerophyll woodlands and subtropical rainforests.
One of our keynote presenters will be Dr. Douglas Quin, from Syracuse University in the US. Doug has a vast experience of sound recording around the world, including some extraordinary research in the Antarctic, and his work is accomplished in both sciences and arts. He’s generous with his knowledge, a natural educator, and enthusiastic about being part of our event.
We’re scheduling our conference for July to tie in with Doug’s availability. However we’re hoping it will also make it possible for local researchers, who would often be in the field during spring, to attend and contribute. We’ve found that our usual September timeslot has often precluded these professionals in the past. Given the extremely dry conditions in recent years across the inland and Queensland in particular, the coastal location should give is ample recording subjects, even though it is early in the season.
Details about the speakers program and workshops for the week, accommodation options, costs and booking details (much of it preliminary at this stage), will be available and updated on the conference page here.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Jan
1
2019
HNY 2019!
Wishing all AWSRG members and friends a fulfilling 2019. May the natural world sing for your microphones, or even better, just for you.
This year we will be holding our biennial workshop/conference. The organising committee are still considering venues (although we have one which looks very suitable), and our anticipated dates are the second week of July (a little earlier than usual). This time will hopefully allow researchers who would normally be in the field during spring to attend, plus allow a pre-eminent visiting recordist from overseas to be our keynote guest.
More details of all this as they are confirmed. But for now, lightly pencil the 8th-12th July in your (digital?) diaries, and we’ll look forward to gathering again.
Jan
28
2018
Presentations from the 2017 AWSRG Conference, Baradine
Each of the presentations at our 2017 conference were audio recorded as a document of the event, and are presented here in program order.
The acoustic in the room makes it difficult to hear at times, but hopefully the audio will be clear enough. Thanks to Bob Tomkins for making these recordings.