There are many places in Australia where you can experience true silence and true darkness as well. It was scary to me at first after having spent most of my life on the east coast of the USA. There were 2 times here though that stand out in my mind one was somewhere between Adelaide and Broken Hill. There was a sign pointing off on a dirt track saying aboriginal rock art 40k. There was little traffic on the main track and when we turned off it looked as if there had been no cars there for a hell of a long time. We drove and drove and finally reached the parking area, using the term loosely. We still had to hike a distance until we reached these piles of huge rocks around a dried up creek bed. A lot of the rocks formed overhangs and underneath was the art. It was amazing, hand prints of all sizes, little baby up to big man, all sorts of paintings of people gathering and the food they ate. After we looked at the paintings we sat there in the shade and honest to goodness you could almost hear the kids voices as they played and the didge and clapstick music as they danced and ate. It is eerie and haunting. With absolutely no real noise anywhere.
Second time was driving through Kakadu National Park late one night. I was all alone in my jeep with the top off and the wind blowing through my hair. I pulled over to have a walk around the car and when I turned off the head lamps I realized the darkness was so complete and intense that I absolutely could not see my hand in front of my face. It was utter sensory deprivation, visually anyhow, the sounds of the night were all around me. When I looked up I could see gazillions of stars but they didn’t shed enough light to see anything around me. It was totally scary and exciting and exhilarating all at the same time. I couldn’t stand it for too long though, I had to hop in the jeep and get those headlights on.
Another one of my favorites is camping on the beach at night when all you can hear is the ocean. Lots of opportunities here, one of the reasons I love it so much.