‘Wambuul bila’ is a soundscape composition that tells the story of one of the most developed sections
of the Wambuul Macquarie River in Central West New South Wales, Australia. The sonic narrative takes a
winding path from the slopes to the plains—ancient Wiradjuri lands seized by European colonisers in
the early 1820s, changing the landscape’s form, function and sounds forever. Signature sounds of the
river today are defined by its degraded state and the many built structures that cross and contain her
waters—structures of human convenience and extraction for towns, farming, mining and industry. The
soundscape weaves together subaqueous rhythms, pulses and harmonies, surfacing to capture sounds of
the riverine corridor, while the dominating, ever-present anthropogenic beats, drones and thrums bleed
into the surrounding environment. The accompanying video captures a churning, soil-laden river in
flood with an animated audio waveform circle symbolising the broken state of the river.