Nature Sounds
A podcast presenting natural soundscapes recorded by Dr Ann Jones, an ABC broadcaster. It captures wildlife and wilderness audio from locations across Australia, including ocean waves, forests, rain, and storms. Designed to serve as white noise, meditation aid, or a sleep aid.
Episodes
A rainy night with owls beside a waterhole in the desert
SOUNDS LIKE: The pressure release of rain drops hitting parched red sand after a sweltering day and possibly the best owl recording that Ann has ever taken.CONTAINS: Patches of rain, and distant frogs happy with the rain, kingfishers with insomnia. And a spectacular territorial display from barking owls.RECOMMENDED FOR: Lovers of weather, of romance and whimsy, and also of birds-
Soothing, soft wind through trees in a peaceful desert
SOUNDS LIKE: Laying in a hammock, your eyes closed, no-one for 500km, surrounded by red sand, listening to the wind in trees that've been around since the dinosaurs. Perfect conditions for a nap.Sometimes, you just need to a bit of silence. Of course, nature is rarely silent. She's even better than that. She's better than ANY noise machine a human has ever invented. Let the sound
Peaceful soundscape of soft ocean waves in a sandy bay
SOUNDS LIKE: The 'shhhh' sound that tropical dreams are made of as gentle waves roll through mangrove trees on an island paradise. It's hushed and peaceful.CONTAINS: Soft waves, and salt water moving quite continuously. Quiet insects throughout. The sounds occupy different frequencies and rhythms so they can all be heard clearly even when they're all calling. Listen for high pitc
Nature's white noise — thousands of humming insects and a soothing rufous owl
CONTAINS: A consistent insect chorus with a rufous owl calling intermittently throughout.RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who like white noise, brown noise, pink noise. For people who want a consistent soundscape to help mask the sounds of the city, who want something almost mechanical or synthesised to help drown their thoughts.ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:Subtle pulsations, and vibrations, wi
Birds in paradise — a rainforest nature soundscape from Australia
SOUNDS LIKE: You're waking up while on holiday in a tropical rainforest, surrounded by exotic birds. Layers of sound are like vine tendrils curling through the jungle canopy: the birds are near, far, above and right next to you. Let them drown out whatever is giving you the sh*ts.In reality, this place in Cape York isn't really visited by tourists. It's one of those spots that th
A cold, crisp night, a high-country river and a whole lot of wombat
SOUNDS LIKE: You have eschewed modern life and joined your new BFF — a wombat — to live a life of naps, snacks and cute attacks. CONTAINS: A clear, cold night and the wombats are stirring, stomping, scratching and most of all, crunching their way through about 2kgs of grass. Nearby, the wombat's neighbours undertake nocturnal shenanigans and no-one seems to get any sleep. Except
Where there is water
No music. No voices. Just the sound of a creek bed in outback Australia.In the Murchison district in Western Australia you're surrounded by low lying ranges where rocks have been found that are 4.4 billion years old — they're almost as ancient as the planet itself.Among the crests and dips of Wajarri country is a creek bed on Boolardy Station. Not flowing, but water is still ther
The storm front
No music, no human voices. Just the sound of an epic summer storm rolling on through the evening.I recorded this at my home. It had been a hot day, and in the late afternoon there was a crack of thunder. I walked out, set the recorder near the woodpile and recorded into the night.In this recording you can hear rain falling, hitting the earth and also hitting the microphones. And
Sounds like camping
No music, no human voices, just the sound of night falling over bushland near Narrabri, recorded by the ABC's Ann Jones. It sounds like camping.Narrabri is in North West NSW, in an incredibly fertile farming area. And yep, you guessed it, where it's fertile, it means you won't get much bushland left intact.This bushland is a patch on the Llara Farm which is used by the University
Quiet shoreline at sunset
No music. No voices. Just the sound of a quiet ocean inlet in the early evening, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. This shoreline is home to many wallabies; will they make any sound?This was recorded over the summer of 2021/22 as I was spending time on Phillip Island / Millowl in Victoria, filming for 'Meet the Penguins' on ABC TV. I put the recorder out at Rhyll Inlet as the s
An hour before dawn in arid WA
No music. No human voices. Just the sound of a frog chorus and a pre-dawn rain shower in arid Western Australia, recorded on location by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. Get in a car in Perth and drive 4 hours northeast to sit beside a pool of water as the frogs call and rain rolls in. It's an hour before dawn.This soundscape was recorded on Badimaya country on Charles Darwin Reserve whic
Life in a forest of giants
No music, no voices. Just the sound of the mountain ash forest, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones.The mountain ash is the tallest flowering plant in the world, a eucalypt that can reach 90m in height. And beneath its arbour is an incredible array of wildlife, including an incredible chorus of birds.I recorded this while filming 'Australia's Favourite Tree' for ABC TV near Marysv
Heavy rain and desert thunder
No music, no talking, just the sound of a rain storm in the desert.Wiluna is a town on the Traditional lands of the Martu people in Western Australia. It’s on gorgeous arid country, about 960km east of Perth. After days of dry heat in excess of 40, it was late afternoon when a huge storm rolled in. Nowhere has storms like the desert, where the hot air rises off the ground to meet
Dawn at the creek
No music, no voices, just imagine you’re camping beside a creek in early spring. Listening Notes from Ann: It was the first hot day of Spring on Wadawurrung Country west of Melbourne. Out of bed before the sun, I walked through the bush listening to the last of the nocturnal sounds, and found a place on a ridgeline overlooking a creek. There are hundreds of large trees with lo
Midnight frog chorus
No music, no voices, just the sound of night time at a swamp on Wadawarrung Country in Victoria. Listening Notes from Ann Jones: There are at least three species of frogs calling all the way through this recording – maybe more. And they provide a wonderful blanket of noise for you to snuggle under. Here’s what I can hear: 00:00:07 – The ‘tonk’, ‘bonk’ and ‘donk’ of the pobblebo
Lyrebird songs in a Gippsland rainforest
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. I made this recording on a wintery morning, outside a hut high up in the mountains of Gippsland on Gunaikurnai land. I arrived in the dark and didn’t realise how high up the hill I was. As the sun rose it took time for it to reach the bottom of the gullies, and so the dawn chorus extended longer and was more distant and
Carolling magpies in Western Australia
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. This recording was made while traveling through Whadjuk Nyoongar land, WA. The birds differ between east and west Australia. That huge swathe of arid country in between has meant that birds have evolved into different sub-species, species and variants. Listening notes from Ann Jones:00:00:00 Normally I would cut out my
Gentle rain on a tin roof in the outback
No music, no voices, just the sound of a spring shower hitting a corrugated iron roof. This recording was made on Wadawurrung Country, in west Victoria, Australia.Listening notes from Ann Jones:00:02:00 Wind in the trees, and grey currawongs calling to each other in chiming duets.00:06:00 Galahs fly past, their nesting hollow is close by.00:07:41 I think this could be brown thorn
Peaceful morning forest songs
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest coming to life early one morning near Canberra -- where the gum trees grow small and with twisting white trunks. In the twilight of the morning I creep out from under the covers to set up the microphones right next to a dam.We are on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and not far away there are paddocks, livestock, a ro
Relaxing birdsong by the ocean
No music, no voices, just the sound of the Roebuck Bay mudflats near Broome, WA. Hear the breeze across the water, crabs and mudskippers flipping and flopping, and a tide that slowly comes in. Roebuck Bay is on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people is one of the most magical places in Australia. It is a 34,119-hectare mudflat, washed every day by a tide that reaches kilometr
Dawn chorus in the mountains
No music, no voices, just the sound of a valley halfway up a Tasmanian mountain. This soundscape is full of birds and breeze echoing backwards and forwards across a reservoir. Kunyani is swirled with mist and the city of Hobart spreads below, in miniature, on a still, early morning. We’re halfway up the mountain, at the Hobart Waterworks Reserve where two huge reservoirs store w
Calm, flowing creek with night-time frog calls
No music, no voices, just the sound of a gentle stream and frogs calling on a still, cool night in regional Victoria.Moonlight floods the landscape of Wadawurrung country. Big, old candlebarks stand still and silent and a creek flows through a shallow valley. Grasses grow up to the waist, except where kangaroos have been nibbling them! And within the sedges by the creek lurk frog
Recommended
UNSW Centre for Ideas
PING
MAMA - Motherhood. Alcohol. Mental Health. Anxiety
The Good Enough Dad with Maggie Dent
Deepthink
Tales from Sniper's Rest
KPMG Turnaround & Restructuring Hub
Tapped In with Demi - Certified EFT Tapping & Subconscious Reprogramming
The Positive Minds Australia Podcast with Madhavi Nawana Parker
That's Showbiz Baby!
Briefed: Commercial Law Updates
Climate Talks
