New story app for Albany’s bicentenary

This is Albany’s bicentenary year — the State’s first as, 200 years ago, this was the first permanent European settlement in WA. This was where new arrivals and Indigenous people first lived together.

And a new interactive audio app called Albany Is has been launched as part of the Albany 2026 bicentenary program.

A living digital oral history time capsule which captures some of the unsung voices and soundscapes of southern coast, it is free to download for Apple devices in the App Store and for Android in Google Play.

Developed by FORM in collaboration with Envelope Audio and Barking Wolf, the producers worked through more than 400 hours of recordings to bring together more than 170 local voices.

It follows 11 themed “journeys”, including Harvest, Edge, Hidden Hands, Practices and Belonging.

Audio clips range from 20 seconds to 20 minutes, drawing on stories from the 1890s through to modern times.

It has an interactive “choose-your-own-adventure” narrative structure.

A FORM spokesperson says:

+ “Key listening journeys open with Menang Noongar voices.”

+ “We wanted to showcase authentic community accounts from a former blacksmith who re-forged bent whaling harpoons to daughters of the Stolen Generation and local fashion designers.”

+ “Through a workshop partnership with Albany Senior High School, local teenagers were brought into the mix to record candid conversations about their favourite fishing spots, weekend life, and the vulnerable realities of growing up in regional WA.”