An ancient forest in Australia’s Border Ranges was an ideal place to spend New Year’s Eve. Here clusters of 2,000 year old Antarctic Beech trees stand surrounded by sub-tropical vegetation. Relics of a distant era they connect the past to the present and an imagined future.
After sunset a number of Japanese tour groups were guided through the forest to view hundreds of glow worms positioned within a shallow cave, the voices of the guides seemed incongruous to the sounds of the Australian night.
Inside the cave the voices were subdued by the sight of glow worms illuminating the rocky ceiling. The pounding sound of water falling into a pool below dominated the space. Within this enclosure the sound was as overwhelming as it was timeless.
Upstream from the waterfall a colony of tree frogs called from vines and rock pools. The voice of a tour guide broke through the darkness as she spoke to a group of tourists spending the final night of 2012 listening to the sounds emanating from the shadows.
SOUNDS LIKE NOISE 
Fine recordings as always, and what a wonderful-sounding place and a good way to see in the New Year.
All the very best to you for 2013, Jay-Dea!
Cheers, Ian
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Thanks Ian. It was indeed a perfect way/place to enjoy the New Year, different from the usual drunk crowds on the streets (who have their own sounds worthy of recording!).
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Really evocative sounds as always … and not sounds usually associated with the turn of the year in my neck of the woods! But that seems to make them even more fascinating. Happy New Year and I look forward to more great sounds from Australia in 2013.
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Happy New Year to you too Des. I liked the idea of those sounds tying together the past present and future, unchanging in that ancient landscape. Maybe the Japanese tours through the forest were a bit more contemporary though!
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