Hear

Help us. What is the sound of spring in Melbourne? The most obvious one is the footy. The sound of the siren is evocative any time of year but doesn’t it seem louder and livelier, almost joyful in September? Almost like it’s celebrating the great local game and the arrival of spring. The strains of rollicking crowds, barrackers and melodramatic commentators rise up into a thumping crescendo before exploding into the club song of the new premiers…played over and over by the two brass-blowing buskers outside the ground.

And then what can you hear that’s specific to spring? The excited chirping of birds, rivers resounding to the kinking of bell miners, the whistle and wail of Puffing Billy as it stirs the bush from its wintry stillness?