KV Goldsmith

A male Red-necked wallaby cleaning up thistles in my front garden.

A Red-necked wallaby mum on alert with her joey reclining in her pouch.

Just hanging about this weekend doing all the things I have no time or energy for through the week…reading, writing, laundry, walking, gardening and watching my garden ornaments graze amongst the native trees and shrubs beside the house 🦘🦘🦘

Pink and mauve dusk skies to the west at dusk. Dark trees in the foreground.

Pastel skies after a warm, grey, showery couple of days across the Western Plains of NSW.

An image of a tree with a red audio waveform graphic over the top with the arboreus.earth logo in the bottom centre.

A world map with red markers of where the sonic tree portraits have come from on the arboreus.earth site. 9 countries are currently represented — Australia, England, USA, Canada, Kenya, Venezuela, Poland, France, Germany.

CALLOUT: arboreus.earth submissions. This is growing a global, virtual forest of sounds. Are trees near you on this map? If not, we’d love to see them included.

Details of how to submit are on the submit page of the site - arboreus.earth/submit/ Deadline for final 2025 upload is 21 November.

Two light brown speckled honeyeater eggs in a woven nest of grasses and cobwebs attached to a young tree.

White-plumed Honeyeater eggs in a beautiful nest of woven grass and cobwebs, found in the back of my garden.

Night lights of the city on the plains with the first light of the day appearing in the east.

The view on my way to work in the mornings these days. A pre-dawn Dubbo City.

🙏🏻 and yes, only good things 😊

Forever more! I’m the official new presenter. We were talking about you on Friday 😆 You were one of the best.

My week in pictures. An early morning Sunday walk, a Saturday of conversation and listening on farm, and another week down of presenting the ABC brekky program across the Western Plains on NSW sharing ideas, laughs, information, and some great yarns.

Thank you!

A photo of me holding headphones behind an ABC branded microphone in the radio studio with ABC signage on a banner behind me.

I’ve just finished up my first week as the full-time breakfast presenter on ABC Western Plains. It’s where I started started my journalism career in earnest in 1992. Some call it full circle, others back to the future. It’s a new challenge. Radio has changed enormously in 30 years, but so have I.

Thank you! Yes, big changes.

A screenshot of the current temperature in Dubbo -1.8°C feels like -5.2°C.

It’s the first day of spring tomorrow 🥶 The only thing we don’t get here is snow. Winter can piss off now.

A social media tile showing feature images of each of the 25 listings currently on the site with the text: The sounds of a virtual global forest, a quote from the website, and the arboreus.earth logo.

The sounds of a virtual, global forest - 25 beautiful sonic tree and forest portraits from 8 countries, recorded by 14 field recordists. New listings now online. Take a break and plug into arboreus.earth 🎧 arboreus.earth/trees/

A screenshot of the weather in Dubbo on a Sunday morning — -2.1°C feels like -4.7°C.

This is a bit rude for the end of winter. I don’t need this for my predawn work starts 🥶

A Red-necked wallaby grazing, showing scars on its back.

A Red-necked wallaby on alert.

A Red-necked wallaby grazing weeds on a mound of dirt.

Wallaby today? 🦘 This fella has a story to tell 😕

Macro photo of a microscopic web beneath decaying wood in the soil.

After chasing radio stories all week, I’m switching gears this weekend with looming creative deadlines for an exhibition opening late October. Puzzling over how to supply a high res image for a sound work. I might have to use one of my macro photos of soil given that’s what the work is about.

Over 3 decades, I’ve navigated my way through new processes, software & comms formats as needed with a little bit of on-the-go learning along the way. After a week in a new job, using an unfamiliar PC, software & apps I’d never seen or heard of before this week, my brain feels ready to explode 🤯

“Soils Turn” is co-edited by Ass. Prof. Arts & Research at Bauhaus University Weimar, Alexandra R. Toland & curator & ecoartspace founder, Patricia Watts. Limited edition of 300. Pre-orders being taken now - ecoartspace.org/Sys/Store/Pr...

The cover of "Soils Turn: A Field Guide to Artistic Earthly Engagements".

BOOK LAUNCHING IN OCTOBER // "Soils Turn" highlights the work of approximately 30 distinguished soil artists from across the world, and includes soil essays, and a directory of 140 soil artists. I’m thrilled to say my work of the past few years listening to Australian rural soils will be included.

They’re so judgmental.

A female King parrot and me hanging out on the deck at the house.

Signage at the entrance of the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens.

Signage at the Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre in Moruya, partially obscured by lomandra.

A giant River Peppermint tree trunk with a path below it.

That’s a wrap! It’s been a fabulous week wandering & listening to the forests and waterways of South Coast NSW. With 160+GB of recordings in the bag, it’s time to head home and start creating. Big thanks to the the Botanic Gardens staff, the team at the Bas & Eurobodalla locals for your assistance 💚

Me wearing a striped tee, sunglasses, a cap and headphones standing on a rock ledge by the ocean.

Today’s workplace 🌊

Listening and recording the sounds of first light and dawn in the coastal forests on the South Coast of NSW. I was naming the the birds in my head as I heard them…was that a chicken? 😳 Yep, a clucking clucker 🐔amongst the native Wattlebirds, Currawongs, Honeyeaters and Kookaburras.

arboreus.earth The sounds of a virtual, global forest

Sun 27 July is National Tree Day in Australia. What a great excuse to have a listen to an Aussie tree...or maybe one from England, France, Germany, Venezuela, Canada, the US, or Kenya.

arboreus.earth growing a virtual, global forest—one soundscape at a time.

🎧 recommended - arboreus.earth/trees/

I’m sure of it!

Bright yellow wattle flowers.

It’s the start of wattle season. Yellow buds are on the cusp of bursting into yellow fluff everywhere here.

There are few things more satisfying than a desk clean. I have space.

🙏🏼 I appreciate that. Most of the time I know it. When the comments come from family in particular, it probably hurts the most. Many of the elders in my family (and many politicians) believe art is a hobby or a luxury, or something to make money from, and not something that contributes to the world.

I’ve been an exhibiting artist for 24yrs. My practice has been centred on ecological issues for the past 17yrs, the past 6 on full-time equiv hrs. I pay my bills doing part-time work in comms/journalism. I was asked today what am I doing while I’m ‘between real jobs'? Being an artist doesn’t count 🙄

Behind the grassy valley and trees on a ridge in the background of this photo, a solar development is being built.

It’s World Listening Day. I’m dwelling on what it means to be a listener. This week, my soundscape has been dominated by the construction sounds of a 444ha solar development, that will clear 68.5ha of native veg, incl. an Endangered Ecological Community. This soundscape is being altered forever.