In 1898 an expedition to the Torres Strait, between
Australia and Papua New Guinea, took the newly invented wax cylinder phonograph. Led by AC Haddon, they recorded more than 50 cylinders, which have now been digitally restored. Presented by Dr Janet Topp Fargion , curator at the British Library Sound Archive, this programme tells the story, through the sounds of the cylinders and contemporary interviews, of the year-long Cambridge University expedition and the effect it has had on the islanders, which continues right up to the present. Producer Peter Nash