Forgotten Songs

129 species of birds native to new South Wales are formally listed as extinct or threatened with extinction. The recordings you can hear are bird species that sang in central Sydney before Europeans settled and gradually forced them away. Some of these birds can still be heard on the city margins where they find food and shelter in thick native vegetation. Others have retracted still further.

Habitat loss is the over-riding threat to bird survival. These are some of the many birds which may have once lived in Angel Place, before the city replaced their native habitats.

During the day you may hear the calls of the Eastern Whipbird, Rockwarbler, Dusky Woodswallow, White-throated Tree Creeper and Grey Fantail. At night you may hear the Southern Boobook, Tawny Frogmouth and White-Throated Nightjar.

The team responsible for developing the installation for City of Sydney's 2009 By George Hidden Networks program include Michael Thomas Hill and Dave Towey, directors of Lightwell a multi-disciplinary studio that develops media programs for public spaces. Richard Wong has recently graduated from COFA's Environmental Design School and contributed to the spatial design of the project. Dr Richard Major developed the criteria for determining which species' songs were to be represented in the soundscape. He and the sound recordist Fred van gessell helped develop the website Birds in Backyards where further information can be found about Sydney's changing bird population.