The following recordings were at first intended to show those affected by the Kenmore Bypass the audible contrast between a green space and a major roadway. What I discovered has prompted me to take the exercise further. Here are my initial results.

The first recording was made at dawn on Sunday Morning May 11th in Sallyanne Atkinson Park near the dog off leash area on the corner of Sunset and Twilight Street. There was a thick low mist and a few people were enjoying the tranquillity walking there dogs. This is a pleasant background to a lazy extra hour or so in bed on an Autumn Sunday morning.

At the same time on Monday morning the 12th of May I went to the junction of Fig Tree Pocket Road and the Western Freeway, behind Fig Tree Pocket Kindergarten and recorded this. Here truck, utes, cars, vans and motorcycles all rushed by, contributing to the constant deep drone interrupted only by the intermittent snarling from a motorbike, the rumbling low thudding of truck. Have a listen and ask yourself if you could sleep through it.

Of course there is no sound barrier at that (or any) junction, so be fair I went to Market Street to record this from behind, that’s with the protection of a sound barrier. This astounded me. There is little difference between the recording made ten minutes earlier without a sound barrier to the one from behind a sound barrier. There is a truck using compression brakes at 05:00am. I recorded this from behind a sound barrier-- I wonder how people sleep. Listen for yourself and ask if you could sleep with that in the background at the bottom of your garden. Remember this is from behind a sound barrier!

By 08:00 I thought the traffic would have slowed down and sound different. I went back to behind Fig Tree Pocket Kindergarten to record the rush hour. Can you tell the difference between the traffic at dawn and the traffic three hours later? Traffic passed at a far higher rate making it louder and there is a larger variety of equally annoying sounds, (including my mobile phone). There no escape from a four lane carriageways continual, unrelenting noise polluting performance. It me it sounds unsettling, agitating and very unpleasant.

Whilst I was recording I couldn’t believe how loud the noise is. It’s incredibly loud. How people can function with that in earshot is beyond me.
I am now equipped with a Sound Level Meter and am about to measure the noise levels to see how close the levels are to causing hearing loss.

The recordings were made with a new Zoom H4 field recorder as MP3s, are unmastered and have no effects added.

Ian McManus
12 May 2008

For a bit of fun, listen to this appropriate song by Joni Mitchell: