A still from newly-digitised footage (1958) of Henry Albert Grace playing his bird whistles in the bush.
Courtesy of the State Library of NSW.
Some of the many bird whistles made by amateur ornithologist Henry Albert Grace.
These whistles are in the collection of the State Library of NSW.
Dawn Chorus
A short film exploring one man’s commitment to recording the sounds of native birds, even as his hearing begins to fail him.
Dawn Chorus explores one man’s passion to record Australian native bird calls, even as his hearing begins to fail him. Railway worker and amateur ornithologist Henry Albert Grace (1885-1966) described himself as a "bird listener." A self-taught naturalist and inventor, Grace spent decades listening to and making annotated recordings of native bird calls in the bush. Using scrap metal, he constructed a remarkable collection of bird whistles to mimic bird calls. When he began to lose his hearing, Grace was undeterred: he created ingenious metal ear-horns to amplify the sounds of native birds that were still available to him. Combining newly-digitised footage of Grace playing his bird whistles with archival imagery and striking wildlife footage, Dawn Chorus uses sound design to recreate the sensory experience of listening as well as hearing loss, asking audiences to consider the value of actively listening to the natural world.
In pre-production.