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'Scholars considering the acoustics of exploration have focused on how explorers heard Australian space in terms of silence, to argue this silenced Indigenous presence, or that stillness, was incongruous with how a place to be colonised should sound. I focus on the acoustically attuned Ludwig Leichhardt, a science-poet indebted to the Enlightenment, but also engaged with the German Romantic legacy. The manifold acoustic dimensions of expeditioning – including music – were important to him in different ways. The acoustic world could be assayed and harnessed in ways that were often consistent with colonialism. But there was also something fugitive about acoustics. They could mark a site for emotional engagement with place, and sometimes embryonic cross-cultural dialogue. Yet the possibilities were not always heard and, in line with Romanticism, the acoustic could drag down expeditioners’ spirits just as it could buoy them up. It could baffle or be a site for Indigenous resistance.' (Publication abstract)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- The Leichhardt Diaries : Early Travels in Australia During 1842-1844 vol. 7 no. 2 30 June 2013 periodical issue
- The Letters of F.W. Ludwig Leichhardt : Collected and Newly Translated [from the German, French and Italian] Marcel Aurousseau (translator), 1968 single work correspondence biography
- Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia : From Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a Distance of Upwards of 3000 Miles, During the Years 1844-1845 1846 single work diary