For grey nomads camping in some remote Outback spot, one of the most startling things is just how quiet it is.
After a lifetime of frantically chasing around for work and family, a weary traveller can finally sit back in his or her campchair and say, ‘I actually can hear myself think!’.
But how quiet really is the Australian bush?
According to IAC Acoustics (Australia), which makes anechoic chambers designed to be totally silent, it’s not that quiet at all.
The company’s Business Unit Manager, Architectural Products & Test, Guy Pulley, said that silence is more elusive than most grey nomads realise.
A full Anechoic Chamber like this one is quieter than the Outback ... much quieter! PIC: IAC Acoustics (Australia)
“The crackle of a fire, chirping of insects, the faint rustle of leaves,” he said. “The day-today sounds of human-made activity of cars, hard-heeled shoes on engineering timber floors, the barista banging out the used grinds into the bin, and a myriad of other noise sources may be gone … but there’s almost always something making a noise.”
But, inside an anechoic chamber, nothing makes a noise. They are specially constructed with anechoic wedges and high-tech flooring and lighting systems to make sure of that. The chambers are used by scientists and engineers for a variety of reasons, and allow them to make precise and repeatable measurements of noise sources.
Mr Pulley says the difference between sitting in the quietest of Outback spots and an anechoic chamber is startling.
“For true silence, an anechoic chamber will leave you hearing what … your breath, your heartbeat … and then nothing?” he said. “Staying still in an anechoic chamber does become uncomfortable after a short period of time but it varies for everyone … some have to leave within 10 minutes, while others are fine for maybe an hour.”
Trying to have a conversation with someone in an anechoic chamber is extremely disorienting as your own voice sounds so quiet, and the person you are speaking to sounds as if they are much further from you than they are.
It’s because you’re only hearing the sound of their voice from their mouth, rather than it being reflected off the walls and the ceiling, and other objects like perhaps a table.
For veteran travellers like Mark David who commonly camps alone in the Kimberley, it’s difficult to imagine that there are quieter places than the Outback.
“It will certainly make me think the next time I am sitting in what I used to think was silence,” he said. “And hopefully it will make me just that bit more aware of my surroundings and all that is going on around me … yet another new perspective on the Big Lap.”
• Where’s the quietest place you’ve ever camped? Comment below.
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I’d rather listen to the beautiful sounds of nature..very calming..!