Bournda Bird Olympics Revive Bush Mimics on New South Wales Far South Coast

Forty regional students have gathered on the New South Wales Far South Coast to revive an imperilled bushcraft tradition, testing their vocal cords in the annual Bournda Bird Olympics.

Representing seven local schools, the young competitors convened at the Bournda Environmental Education Centre near Merimbula to determine who could most convincingly replicate the distinctive calls of native woodland avian species, ABC News NSW reported.

Far South Coast Stages Chorus of Bush Mimics

The competition, which showcases a folkloric skill once commonplace among rural Australians, tested contestants across a rigorous suite of vocal challenges. Rather than relying on manufactured game calls or whistles, participants used only their diaphragms, throats, and cupped hands to echo the wildlife native to the surrounding national park.

Organisers framed the event as both a spirited school contest and a serious preservation effort. For generations, imitating native fauna was a practical staple across regional Australia, deployed by bushmen, drovers, and naturalists to observe wildlife behaviour or pass the hours in remote camps. In contemporary classrooms, however, digital recordings and birding applications have steadily displaced the organic craft.

Perfecting the Raven's Wail and Cockatoo's Cry

According to ABC News NSW, the judging criteria required participants to accurately reproduce the harsh, drawn-out wail of the Australian raven, the resonant cackle of the laughing kookaburra, and the mournful screech of the yellow-tailed black cockatoo.

Each species poses unique acoustic challenges for human vocal tracts. While the kookaburra demands rapid glottal articulation to capture the rising chorus and rolling chortle of its territorial display, the yellow-tailed black cockatoo requires a deep, brassy timbre that strains the upper registers of younger competitors. The raven, often overlooked in formal musicality, demands an exacting cadence to capture its mournful, descending dying-drawl across open paddocks.

Adjudicators assessed the students not merely on sheer volume, but on cadence, tonal pitch, and authenticity. The ultimate standard remained whether a call was convincing enough to draw a response from real birds nesting in the eucalyptus canopy above the reserve.

Reconnecting Bushland Youth with Native Ecology

Beyond the quest for individual accolades, educators underscored the broader ecological benefits of the exercise. Cultivating the patience to discern and reproduce complex avian calls compels students to engage intimately with their local ecosystems, fostering observational field skills that cannot be replicated through a screen.

The regional initiative also provided students with an immersive lesson in coastal bioacoustics. Set between paperbark lagoons and coastal sclerophyll forest, the reserve offered a natural amphitheatre where competitors examined how different species modulate pitch depending on vegetation density and social signalling.

With seven schools participating in this year's contest, environmental educators remain hopeful that the resurgence of interest will secure the Bournda Bird Olympics as an enduring fixture on the Far South Coast educational calendar. As the final calls echoed over the bushland, the event demonstrated that while technology continues to transform regional education, the living sounds of the Australian bush remain firmly in youthful hands.