The Australian Aboriginal flag was designed by Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas in 1971, and it was first flown in Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga, the centre of Adelaide, on 9th July of that year, on National Aborigines Day. The flag was given official governmental status as a flag of Australia in 1995, an act that was criticised by its designer, Harold Thomas, as appropriative. He had wished the flag to remain an independent symbol of and for indigenous people. On 8th July 2002, the Adelaide City Council endorsed the permanent flying of the Aboriginal flag near to the location where it was first raised at Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga in 1971. The geolocation of the flagpole is -34.928890, 138.600066.

This recording was made around noon on 15th February 2025,  a windy Saturday, simultaneously with a pair of JrF C-series contact microphones and a pair of LOM Geofons.

Flagpole of the Aboriginal Nation

At the time that the 'Square' was named, on 23rd May 1837, by the Street Naming Committee of Adelaide, Victoria was not yet 'Queen', but still 'Princess Victoria', heir presumptive of the British throne.

Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was 'Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland' from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title 'Empress of India'.

The statue was erected in 1894, during the period of Victoria's monarchy, and one year after the death of the original sculptor. The statue was sculpted by Charles Bell Birch, although his name does not appear on the monument. The monument plaque records only the name of the financial donor, Sir Edwin Thomas Smith (in 1894). (As one official local record rather candidly states, "in many respects the Queen Victoria statue is his monument".)

Victoria Square

This track summarises the whole purport and purpose of the micro-project playlist 'Victoria Square ≠ Tarndanyangga'. This is a simple but deeply-felt project. Its purpose is to express a simple but profound fact: that granting a place two names, a post-colonial name ('Victoria Square') and its original indigenous pre-colonial name ('Tarndanyangga'), does not provide any insight, illumination, or understanding of what each of those two names really means and implies...

In this track, we listen to 'Victoria Square' as it sounds on a typical day around noon in 2025; then listen to how that present moment sounds from inside the flagpole that holds the flag of the Aboriginal Nation, designed by an Aboriginal artist and representing many different tribes and languages throughout this vast and unique land; and then listen to what this particular place, Tarndanyangga, would very likely have sounded like at dawn, before colonial invasion/settlement. And then we re-emerge, through the flagpole that bears the Aboriginal flag, into the present everyday reality of 'Victoria Square'.

The very obvious and clear point of this simple exercise is to demonstrate, quite directly, that 'Victoria Square', today, is NOT 'Tarndanyangga', as it existed and sounded prior to colonial invasion/settlement. What is more, it is quite IMPOSSIBLE to produce a pure sound recording of the original pre-colonial Tarndanyangga soundscape today, absolutely free of any post-colonial post-industrial anthropogenic noise. I have tried to provide the nearest approximation to such a soundscape (in the central movement of this present track, and in the final track of this playlist (https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/tarndanyangga)) that I believe is physically possible, today. But I feel grief and pain that it is just absolutely not possible to experience Tarndanyangga any more, today. That feeling, that recognition, was the vital raw inner impetus of this project, these recordings.

Victoria Square ≠ Tarndanyangga

2025.03.27 Train of Thoughtlessness

An excerpt from an evening-to-dawn recording: here, Glossy Black Cockatoos are departing a forest at dawn, at the western end of Kangaroo Island.

The Glossy Black Cockatoo of Kangaroo Island is a unique subspecies (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus), which is listed as endangered in South Australia, and as a species of concern on Kangaroo Island itself. It is one of 16 bird species endemic to the island.

The Glossy Black originally also inhabited the southernmost coastal region of South Australia, but due to invasive and extensive land clearing for sheep and cattle, forests of Sheoak were demolished. The Glossy Black Cockatoo feeds exclusively on the seeds in the cones of Sheoak trees (Casuarina and Allocasuarina). Hence, for refuge and survival, the Glossy Blacks retreated to Kangaroo Island, where large stands of Sheoak still remained intact. The Glossy Blacks disappeared entirely from the mainland.

During the unnaturally intense bushfires of the 'Black Summer' of 2019-2020, vast areas of natural bushland, mainly at the western end of the island, were severely damaged. The stands of Sheoak that the Glossy Blacks depended upon for food and nesting were obliterated. Unlike eucalypts, which can resprout, Sheoaks must grow again from seed, and it may take ten or more years for new seed-bearing Sheoak forests to re-establish themselves. The Glossy Blacks have now retreated to the east end of the island, untouched by the bushfires, where stands of Sheoak remain. However, the eastern end of the island is much more heavily populated by people than the western end, which comprises large areas of national parks, conservation parks, and wilderness protection areas.

While it is currently relatively easy to catch sight of Glossy Blacks at the busy and noisy eastern end of the island, it is not so easy to see them, let alone to record them, at the western end of the island, a mere five years after the bushfire. I had no intention to seek them out in the eastern end, in the midst of human busyness and noise.

Surprisingly, this recording was made in a forest at the western end of the island. Just one quite unexpected Glossy Black arrived in the early evening; and, without knowing exactly where the Glossy Black had gone, I set up my recording gear for an overnight to dawn recording. Several more must have also arrived during the evening. They departed again, at dawn.

Track photograph credit: with much gratitude to Michael Jury, photograph taken on 7th March 2023 at 10:21 am on Kangaroo Island (slightly modified). (https://www.mykelphotography.com.au/latest-trips-and-location-copy-1)

2025.04.10 Dawn with Glossy Black Cockatoos. Kangaroo Island. Autumn.

Brief excerpt from a recording actually made during dawn on Friday 2nd May 2025, because the weather was perfect, and because I could get out there; whereas the forecast for Sunday 4th May wasn't as good, and I couldn't get out there that day. Raw recording. Just a friendly postcard from the other pole, where it's not spring, but on the way to winter.

For the Northern Hemisphere's 'Dawn Chorus Day', from the Southern Hemisphere.

𝔈𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔫 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱, 𝔞 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔇𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔅𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤.

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