The things we hear

 When contemplating time travel, I have wondered how hard it would be to adjust to the sounds in a time long ago. So much of my lived experience would be missing, The hum of electricity flowing, the grinding of the computer fans, rumbling trucks on distant motorways. AI announcing, ‘Ok, turning on two lights’ at an indecent volume when you ask for a kitchen lamp to illume a dark morning. A human would understand that it was the tiny, high pitched chatter of fairy-wrens that woke you and would know to whisper instead of a proudly shouting. Why does it announce its intentions at all? I feel compelled to applaud and when I say thank you, it tells me it is ‘honoured to serve’. The 6am groan and grind of the coffee machine getting into heat costs seconds off my life every day. So loud! Rudely pushing itself forward through the gentle tapping of the keyboard and snuffling of the dog curled at my feet in the morning quiet.

A fairy wren male in front of an Aus wild iris.

Perhaps people in times past complained of the owls and the pussycats – wishing them off in their pea green boats. I think though they would have been able to hear much smaller things, the humphing of worms pulling their long digestive tract through the dirt below their bed mats or a funnel web pouncing on a lumbering cockroach. Maybe the first noise to bring them from their N2 sleep were the stomata of the trees around them swapping from intaking oxygen in the night to carbon dioxide as the first fingers of light flow over the horizon. Can’t you just hear some hunter gatherer chastising their kids, “No don’t set up the tent under the gumtree, they have such noisy stomata, look there’s a dropping sheoak over there, so much quieter in the morning.” The kids would mutter about dropbears and widow makers and how ridiculously cautious their old fashioned parents were. 

Left - Eucalyptus         Right - Drooping Sheoak

Dogs hear frequencies of sound that humans can’t. Charlie, our mini foxie, has his ear pricked and starts doing his bendy – woo hoo someone I know is coming dance, as soon as Nana’s shiny red mazda turns onto our street. He’s whining at the door then diving to the window and back, way before she pulls up out front. Now of course google announces when our phone is within a km so he lounges over to the guard ottoman at the front window with a selection of toys to present us with.

We were in Canterbury for Christmas in 2011 when marine tremors gave Christchurch another big shake on December 23^rd with after shocks rumbling through January. One night I woke up to what I thought was an ear piercing, high pitched scream. It went on long enough for me to sit up and begin to try and think what it was and if the daughters in the room next door were in danger. Then a big shake jolted me to my feet and the rest of the family awake and diving for a right angle in the room for protection. (All earthquake and bomb drills through my primary years were debunked – little protection under objects and doorframes!) One night when M’s soring had sent me to the couch, I woke up mid air. A quake had hit, flinging me off the leather high enough for me to wake and put out my hands and draw my knees up to land in a crawling position. This time a low sigh and an aurora type green light pummelled the senses. Hearing the Earth move is something I hope not to experience again.

Of course the noisiest creatures on the planet are us humans. At the moment in Australia there is a lot of noise around the referendum, a simple idea that has been barraged with bombs of ridiculous from the far right saying that this 3% of our population will take control, from the leader of the opposition with alternative topics, racial divide and recently auditing his own party for their financial management of past indigenous spending. We’ve had marches with rowdy placards and big celebrity or political voices shouted from the mastheads. Check out a video that has gone big from a couple of comedians and a senator on TikTok here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAqIypjk-5A So much noise and a lot of disrespectful, condescending  behaviour. The fears that the nastiness towards the LGBTQIA community in the lead up to the Marriage Equality survey in 2017 would be replicated towards this referendum’s minority group have been realised with indigenous representatives from both sides of the debate being targeted and awful stereotypes penned in cartoons and slurs in talk back radio.

I like the early mornings when all I hear are the little things.

Check this out re early morning fairy wrens! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2019/nov/14/why-im-voting-no-1-superb-fairy-wren-and-you-should-too The vote for Australia’s favourite bird is becoming very serious!