Talented and respected Lake Grace artists Kerrie Argent and Tania Spencer took time out from installing the latest exhibition at the Multi-Use Art Space in town to show me around their studios.

Jim, a retired farmer, was born and raised in Lake Grace. He described himself as deaf, with one bung eye and the other doesn’t work at all. Walking slowly now with his frame, he’s still living at home at 88. We arrived at his farm to find him sitting in his ute, door open, old sheepdog beside him on the passenger seat, Radio National playing full blast, and pleased to discover he had visitors.

As coast huggers used to the background white noise of the ocean, we’ve been acutely aware of the silence and any sound that breaks it. At sunrise it’s the rowdy galahs perched in the salmon gums, shouting at each other and the world, and at sunset as the wind picks up it’s the rustling of great strips of peeling bark and leaves of the trees around us.