In the outback is a man who is the dancing flippers of Happy Feet, the cheering audience in The Sapphires and the water poured over Hugh Jackman in Baz Luhrmann's movie Australia.

Working from a generator-run studio on the edge of the Flinders Ranges at Quorn in South Australia, John Simpson has crafted his unique career as a foley artist, creating sounds for major Hollywood films.

He explained that when a film crew is shooting, its major focus is getting the clearest dialogue possible.

It leaves many gaps in the sounds needed to make up a film scene, which is where the foley artist comes in.

"Anything that we would normally do in our own life, we have to replace all the sound and do that too," he said.

The foley artist can put in a wide range of sounds, from people picking up cups of tea or coffee to footsteps and clapping, people putting clothes on and taking them off - and the more intimate sounds too.

"You've got the silly kissing scenes and stuff like that where you end up smooching the back on your hand for a while and it's a bit disgusting really," John explained of his craft.

Some movies which are fully animated or with special effects may have no real sound recorded and the foley artist must then create everything from scratch.

John Simpson's outback studio has a room full of unusual stuff.

There are old telephones, rickety chairs, dented tin buckets and even shelves of seemingly-random and dusty shoes.

But what might look like junk to outsiders can be essential tools of trade for a foley artist.

It can be part of his day to whizz a sticky-tape-tipped car aerial through the air to create the sound of bullets or to furiously move a bicycle up and down to make the noise of a passing cyclist.

Sometimes he has the odd task of watching a movie scene while he rubs various pieces of cloth over his body to make the subtle noises of the clothing worn by the movie characters.

John frequently needs to get creative to find the right sound.

Working on King Kong, he did not have the Empire State building on hand to climb.

"All those hand noises, that's just me climbing over a big tin pot in the studio as he's (King Kong) climbing up the side of the building," he explained.

John Simpson said he got into the work by being in the right place at the right time.

He worked in a backroom of the South Australian Film Corporation for a few years as a projection assistant until he scored a chance to try out foley work.

"Someone didn't turn up to do the foley walking job and I'd been recording it for a little while and I knew roughly what had to happen," he said.

Now, almost 20 years later, he has done the foley work for many popular blockbusters.

His earliest big films included The Truman Show, then he worked on Babe, Stephen Spielberg's Tin Tin and he currently is working on sounds for The Hobbit.

John remembers a freezing occasion while working on Hugh Jackman's performance in Australia.

John Simpson created audience sounds for The Sapphires movie ( AFP: Valery Hache )

"All the girls remember the famous scene with Hugh Jackman with his shirt off at the camp at night, washing down, doing the big manpower moment," he said.

"What I say to all the girls that tell me about that scene is 'Think of me kneeling down on the ground tipping freezing cold water over me, which is not the same sort of sight, trust me'."

He said his outback studio does not have any hot water.

John Simpson sometimes travels overseas to work at a film location, but says he has knocked back more long-term overseas work because he is reluctant to leave his unique work environment.

He is not at all surprised when colleagues visiting from overseas greet his office surrounds with awe, set as they are in the remote Flinders Ranges region.

From his office door, Wilpena Pound is clearly visible in the distance and small kangaroos hop by as he drives home along a dirt road.

He said working from a remote location would only become easier as technology improved.

John said working on animated films was the most fun.

"It really is open slather of what you can come up with to make something interesting," he said.

"You can open up the creative part of the brain a little bit wider and put in your best effort."

John Simpson said he could count on 'one hand, maybe two' the number of foley artists around the world working on the major films and had been fortunate to land such a career.

"It's got to be the most fun job in the world, I think, just to sit, make noises and get paid for it," he said.