Fast Fact Tag: bamboo didgeridoo

No. Some of the earliest documented didgeridoos were made from bamboo or hollow cane, not eucalyptus wood.

Collet Barker’s 1829 account describes a “large hollow cane” about three feet long. Ludwig Leichhardt described the Eboro in 1845 as “a long tube of bamboo”, and John Lort Stokes wrote in 1846 of an ebroo made from bamboo about two to three feet long.

Later writers also recorded wooden instruments. Herbert Basedow described both bamboo trumpets and instruments made from a long hollow limb of woolly-butt eucalyptus. Baldwin Spencer likewise recorded trumpets made from bamboo or hollow tree branches.

The evidence shows that eucalyptus wood was an important traditional material, but it was not the only one. Bamboo, cane and other naturally hollow wood were also used in different northern areas.

No. Historical descriptions show considerable variation in length, material, width and decoration. There was no single standard didgeridoo shape.

Some early northern instruments were short. Barker described a hollow cane about three feet long, while Stokes described a bamboo instrument two to three feet long. Other writers recorded instruments around four or five feet long, and surviving examples can be longer again.

Herbert Basedow described bamboo instruments as well as long hollow eucalyptus limbs. Baldwin Spencer also recorded wax or resin around the mouth end to make a better seal, while some instruments were painted or decorated.

The evidence is therefore better understood as a family of regional instruments rather than one fixed design. Size and shape depended on available material, local tradition and how the instrument was to be played.