Tumut
Tumut listens to Grey-headed Flying-foxes waking and heading out from their colony on an island in the Tumut river, below the town of the same name. The river flows through Wiradjuri Country in Australia. Recorded using an ambisonic microphone, the piece tracks an encounter between the flying-foxes, some of their neighbors, and the recordist. Flying-foxes cover great range and are found all along the east coast of Australia but have been documented to be moving south and becoming more localized in specific areas over the last decade, threatened by habitat destruction, global warming, extreme weather events, and food scarcity. The flying-foxes are important to healthy ecosystems, pollinating and dispersing the seeds of key tree species, but are often regarded as pests. The name Tumut is thought to be derived from a word for the area in the local Aboriginal language Wiradjuri, meaning ‘quiet resting place by the river’. When the flying-foxes settled in the NSW Riverina in 2011 and established their camp on the Tumut river, the National Parks and Wildlife Service advised growers to net fruit or even shoot the flying-foxes. The Grey-headed Flying fox has been listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2021.
Premiered as part of Radiophrenia 2025