FEATURE
Hamish Sewell, Christine Parfitt, Keaton Mustard & Kris Randall
Listen up WORDS LEIGH ROBSHAW
THE VOICE OF Powderfinger drummer Jon Coghill is in my ears as I stand outside Nambour Library. He’s telling me about his childhood growing up in Nambour through my wireless headphones connected by Bluetooth to my smartphone, which has an app open called Soundtrails. I’m about to embark on an augmented reality audio adventure through Nambour, where geolocation technology meets the primal pursuit of storytelling. “My family lived here when it was a living, breathing sugar town,” Jon tells me, as if he’s right beside me recounting his life. “It was an amazing place for a kid to grow up. Riding bikes to your mate’s place on the other side of town, hanging out at the old library after school, swimming in Petrie Creek and going to the skate park and local pool on the weekend.” He continues with a brief history of Nambour that takes no more than a couple of minutes before he gives me instructions: “Make sure you have your GPS and Bluetooth on. See that small pulsing dot where it reads ‘start’ on the 18
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map? That dot is picking up GPS and as you walk; the pulsing dot follows you. See those small translucent fields on the map? These are audio stories.” As I walk into each field, a story about that location narrated by a knowledgeable local person is triggered without me having to do anything. No need to hit stop or play, the stories just unfold as you follow the Soundtrail, offering a deeply engaging and immersive experience. From start to finish the Nambour Soundtrail can take up to one-and-a-half hours. If you’re a fast walker and don’t listen to all the stories, you’ll complete it faster. Sure, you can download the app and just play the stories from home, but you’ll be missing out on the real treasure of this app: its ability to engage all your senses and do a deep dive into the place. Walking north along Currie Street from the library, I enter another sound field and the voice of Florence Comino (nee Venardos) begins. She describes how her dad owned the picture theatre in Currie Street, then built a new one and
SALT
7/06/2021 12:56:34 PM
