The Billabong tells the illusive story of the song and its resonance in Australia’s cultural history, as well as the dramatic forces that have shaped this ancient land and the people who survived them.
Jan Nowell
Located in Central Queensland, Winton occupies a special place in Australia’s history. As the Birthplace of Waltzing Matilda this little town where Banjo Patterson first penned the lyrics to the iconic song has become somewhat of a legend. After a fire burned down the centre in 2015 it was time for the historic landmark to be reborn. At the helm of the redesign was Arterial Design from Melbourne, a design firm with a long history of delivering stunning exhibition designs with close connections to the communities they are apart of. Our first step was to visit Winton, meet the people and get a sense of the landscape. On our week long trip it was very important to us to gather bespoke sound recordings of the land. We knew that this exhibition space was extremely important to the people of Winton and in a lot of cases to their livelihoods as well so it needed to be authentic. So we took the time to listen, to listen to the stories, to peoples journeys and to the land. Every sound we gathered revealed a unique aspect of life in Winton. Once back at the studio we set to work crafting 6 sonic narratives, each of them highlighting an area of Winton’s rich history. Once these had been mocked up The Sequence Group set to work on the visuals, producing breathtaking animations to be projected onto the silicon rod curtain that snakes it’s way around the centre of the exhibition creating the ‘Billabong’. Once completed, we returned to Winton to mix the soundscapes in the exhibition space, the 8.2 channel speaker array allowed us to infuse a strong sense of dynamics and movement into the piece. Utilising the full spectrum of sound in a surround environment we where able to firmly anchor the listener in one location and in the blink of an eye transport them to wholly unfamiliar sonic realms, creating a truly unique and engaging immersive sound experience.
