Running Time:
63 min
Release Date:
June 1999
Recording Location:
Track 1: Main waterhole at entrance to Ormiston Gorge, Western Macdonnell Ranges
Track 2: "Gunbarrel Highway" near Kulgera
Track 3: N'Dhala Gorge, Eastern Macdonnell Ranges
Track 4: Ormiston Gorge, Western Macdonnell Ranges
Track 5: John Hayes Rockhole, Trephina Gorge, Eastern Macdonnell Ranges
Track 6: near Luritja Road (Kings Canyon to Uluru)
Track 7: Lasseter Highway, near Mount Ebenezer
Track 8: near Kings Canyon
Track 9 & 10: Ellery Creek Bighole, Western Macdonnell Ranges
Track 11: Main waterhole at entrance to Ormiston Gorge, Western Macdonnell Ranges
If you like this album,
we also recommend:
Spirit of the Outback
The Australian Outback - ancient, mysterious and often breathtakingly beautiful.
Listen to predawn birdsong echoing around Ormiston Gorge, an exhilarating flock of wild Budgerigars, Wedgebills - 'the windchimes of the desert', the cries of Black Cockatoos carrying across the plains, rare desert frogs and, under a full moon, the eerie wail of Dingoes.
Andrew comments:
"The outback is one of our favourite places. It can be utterly bewitching - stark and dry, or full of life. This album captures that magic, but mostly through sheer luck on our part.
"On the first night of our field trip, tired after a long day of driving, we camped in an unassuming patch of mulga. The next morning we awoke to find the place alive with birdsong. It had rained maybe a week previously - but only on this few square kilometers of country. Nomadic birds had arrived and begun breeding, and we were treated to a rarely heard richness of birdsong. We were in the right place, at the right time.
"We were fortunate to get the dingoes too. After 8 weeks of field work, with no luck and deteriorating weather, we decided to try for them one more night. Recording in the dark by a waterhole, I realised I had a dead battery, and rushed off to get a replacement. I'd no sooner got the recorder fired up again than the dingoes began wailing. 20 seconds later and I would have missed them. Half an hour later, the wind was howling and rain began falling."
And finally - those Pied Butcherbirds at Ormiston. Many listeners have been moved by this recording. What a songbird, and what an acoustic space."
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