Why millions of Australians are convinced they know this woman from somewhere

Millions of Australians have heard Taylor Owynn’s voice – but few would recognise her if they saw her on the street.

For the past 20 years she has been the iconic voice of NSW trains and trams.

Melbourne-born Taylor, who call now Sydney Home, started acting in her twenties – but never expect her most famous line “Attention, gap.”

Recently, she stumbled upon a viral Facebook post about her role in traffic announcements and was touched by the public’s enthusiasm for her voice.

“I love this job, I really do. I have been overwhelmed by what it has meant to people. I am incredibly touched,” she told FEMAIL.

“When I record announcements, I always think of the people because I know what it’s like to be on a podium.”

“There are distractions, there’s a lot of noise around you, you may not speak the language, it may not be your first language. I’m always conscious of that.”

In her younger years, Taylor moved to New York, where she didn’t know a soul, and stayed only a year after realizing how “hard” life was there.

Taylor then moved to London, where she thought she would stay for the rest of her life, only to return to Australia two years later.

She has scored hundreds of radio spots and audiobooks throughout her career, but her job in New South Wales transport is what is closest to her heart.

She was even briefly the voice of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.

Passengers from across NSW know Taylor’s reassuring voice, reminding them of safety rules and telling them which train is coming next.

“Like all opportunities in my life, this one came completely unexpectedly. But I’m so glad it happened. At the time, they wanted to change the voice from a male to a female,” she explained.

Most of the time, Taylor prefers to stay in the background, but on rare occasions she – or at least her voice – is recognized in public.

“I get asked to take a selfie occasionally. Most of the time strangers say, ‘I know your voice from somewhere,’ but they can’t say exactly where. So I feel compelled to confess and maybe give a live impression,” she said.

One time, she was in the middle of the French countryside when she met a German man who had lived in Sydney and recognized her voice.

Taylor said the technology behind public transit announcements was “very different” when she was hired for the job.

The complete sentences that can be heard over the loudspeaker system are actually words and phrases that have been recorded one after the other. This so-called compound speech is the abbreviation for concatenated speech.

Their recordings had to be consistent in pitch and tone because “everything had to flow into one another as if it were a single sentence, even though it was actually a combination of several.”.

Before landing the job at NSW Transport, she starred in the popular 90s children’s show Bananas in Pyjamas, playing teddy bear Lulu.

Ms Owynns played the role for 12 years and said the size and weight of the costume were physically demanding at times.

She described it as a “completely different job” compared to her work as a train announcer, where she could “be a kid again”.

“It was like we were playing like little kids. The teddy bears were eight years old, I think. It was a fantastic team,” she said.

“The suit was heavy. The feet were shaped like running shoes and very large, the hands had four fingers and I could only see through the tip of my nose.”

Transport for NSW also posted pictures of Taylor on Facebook, prompting a flood of positive comments from commuters.

“I just LOVE the way Taylor announces Leppington and Edmondson Park. She makes them sound like magical places where unicorns roam. Always a highlight of my day and makes me smile,” wrote one Sydneysider.

Another called her a “national hero,” while a third said she was an “Australian icon.”

“Nice to put a face to this iconic voice,” wrote another.

A surprising number of people admitted that they thought the voice came from television presenter Gretel Killeen.

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