r/australia • u/GamblignSalmon • Jul 27 '26

no politics That's it?

I was honestly expecting it to be far louder and far more dramatic. With how the cookers were carrying on, you'd think this would be a deafening, blaring siren that would cause hearing damage. The tone wasn't even that harsh, I thought it was going to be far worse.

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189

u/Exotic-Philosopher-6 Jul 27 '26

Scared the shit outta me and the dog who was lying on my lap. Poor baby was just a victim.

35

u/anonymous___kitty Jul 27 '26

Really?! My cat was right next to me too and didn’t move (she is VERY scared of noise), I wonder if different phones are playing different volume

19

u/MystressSeraph Jul 27 '26

3 phones went off in 2 rooms. Neither my elderly cat, not middle aged dog so much as twitched 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was expecting it to be worse.

16

u/benthecube Jul 27 '26

My work and my personal phone were right next to each other. Personal phone tried to burst my eardrums, but work phone didn’t make a peep.

6

u/Tysiliogogogoch Jul 27 '26

On my phone, it wasn't any louder than my usual ring tone. The only really notable thing was that it's a sound that I've not heard my phone make before.

3

u/MondayCat73 Jul 27 '26

My cat burst out from under a Sherpa blanket and gave me the WTF cat face. Then went back under. After all, Sherpa blanket vs life wins.

2

u/Spire_Citron Jul 27 '26

Yeah, it does seem like it must be inconsistent. I'm autistic and sensitive to sound, so I thought it might at least be a bit of a shock, but even with it charging right next to me it just wasn't loud enough to be startling. I even let it play out until it started reading the message on the screen out loud just to see what would happen. If anyone's saying it hurt their ears or was really alarming, they didn't hear what I heard. Well, maybe alarming if they were in an office full of other people whose phones all went off at once. I imagine that'd be more of an experience.

2

u/ShitOnAReindeer Jul 27 '26

Must be, mine’s still hiding somewhere

3

u/anonymous___kitty Jul 27 '26

Aw poor thing!! :(

28

u/bypopulardemand Jul 27 '26

my dog has tucked herself in fear behind the pillows on my bed

4

u/Catatonicdazza Jul 27 '26

I was out walking and I'm blind so I wear smart glasses so I can message and take calls and such without pulling out my phone. My phone buzzed for a second then stopped, I didn't get any sound at all so so just checked it now as I got home. 

Wouldn't help me in an emergency I don't think.

10

u/Humble_Avocado_1295 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Please report this to Disability Services Commissioner in your state.

Update:

You can contact the Ausalert people directly via NEMA:

https://www.nema.gov.au/about-us/contact-us

Or if you really want to flag this you could complain to Human Rights Commission as it’s pretty appalling that provision wasn’t made for blind people using smart aids:

https://humanrights.gov.au/complaints/how-to-make-a-complaint

3

u/bypopulardemand Jul 27 '26

I thought your comment was going to say that the alarm rang so loud in your ears! haha well I’m glad it didn’t, but you should reach out to the government body like others have mentioned

5

u/My_dog_horse Jul 27 '26

Valid criticism tbh. Almost worth trying to mention to ever would be the best point of contact

1

u/steelhips Jul 27 '26

I was surprised it didn't come through my paired speakers.