On the Edge: a layered history of Sydney's South Head

A special History Lab episode with a soundwork that explores the history of Sydney's South Head, followed by an interview with the maker Sinead Roarty and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS, Tamson Pietsch.

About the soundwork: On the Edge

The Gap at South Head in Sydney's eastern suburbs is a place of extreme beauty. It is also famous for being Australia's most well-known suicide destination.

On the Edge is a long-form binaural/VR soundwork exploring South Head’s spatial history and its varied conflicting narratives. The work addresses multiple levels of ‘silencing’ from the time of colonial contact and uses sound to give a voice to the unheard. South Head's ruptured history has shaped the perception of it in the past and this soundwork suggests a way to reanimate it in the present.

The thirteen-minute soundwork is best experienced at the Don Ritchie Grove, located a few minutes’ walk from The Gap lookout and can be accessed on a mobile phone from the website https://www.ontheedge.space/

On the Edge was created as part of a non-traditional PhD at the University of Technology Sydney. The PhD was subsequently recognised as the best doctoral thesis from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2023 and was included on The Chancellor's List, which recognises ‘exceptional scholarly achievement in PhD research’.

On the Edge transcript

• Word doc transcript
• PDF transcript

On the Edge Credits

• Writer/Director: Dr Sinead Roarty
• Primary Supervisor: Dr Delia Falconer
• Alternate Supervisor: Assoc Professor Debra Adelaide
• Sound Studio: MassiveMusic
• For all credits see https://www.ontheedge.space/

Episode credits

Sound engineering: Simon Branthwaite

Episode image photo by Sinead Roarty.

History Lab is a production of UTS Impact Studios.