As a core value, we approach didg finding with respect for country and much gratitude for all the learnings it brings.  When we arrive in a good spot there’s always a tune in to the land and acknowledge those whose country it is, and the mob who have cared for it for eons and continue to. We do our best to engage with mob, property owners and State Forests seeking permission and permits, and we are selective in what we take and how many, ensuring that the health of the bush and the variety mix is preserved.

The selection process starts with care and enjoying the process. It’s about dropping into the walkabout and letting go of outcome. It’s about learning and discovery every step. When I go this way, I stay safe I don’t get lost and the land blesses me with what I find.

To use the Bloodwood tree example of this video, sometimes in the selecting process a perfect didgeridoo will be left and not selected. Selecting a didg is as much about what one says no to, as to the yes’s. Selecting  didgs, sometimes it’s about where the tree is, sometimes it’s how many other trees are nearby, sometimes it’s have I enough right now? Can I just wonder at nature and leave this one, it may be just a feeling! Or another time it’s a big yes, clear and loud.

Sometimes though it’s also, I got one wrong, I misread the signs and the hole is tiny or doesn’t go all the way. It may happen less these days but it still can piss me off,  did I not listen fully. When I chill though, there’ll be a gift, a nudge, a learning and stuffing up is part of life. The more I don’t beat myself up, the more I learn and the less I stuff up.  It’s a reciprocal deal with the bush as friend, and a responsibility to be respectful in my selecting. It evolves into a multifaceted dance that takes me deeper into connection every time I go walkabout, receiving from the land.

Average Heartland didgeridoo curing time is about 4 years and many didgs are cured for much much longer. I’m looking forward to making soon a really special log that is 26 years old, and I know because I stuffed a 1998 newspaper down both ends, to slow the drying at the time. When we start making any didg, experience tells us how the didg will be as to its integrity and we know what to do to improve and strengthen it where needed .  Some didgeridoos don’t need long curing time frames and we may make these within months and some straight away, but the experience of decades enables this choice to be made  rarely and appropriately.  These choices depend on the wood grain, the  integrity, the degree of life force that was running through it. Many didgs sold by inexperienced makers, may be much more prone to cracking and problems in several ways because of lack of curing and  timing knowledge. Having made thousands of didgs over decades gives us confidence in selection and in ensuring the result that will make you happy.

We follow the didgeridoos lead, featuring its natural aesthetics and features ahead of the art. Any art is then used to highlight and bring to life or celebrate the spirit of the tree, and these natural features remain the feature with the art aiming to complement. The example below of a gorgeous Red gum didgeridoo, that was found a dead tree, burnt and seemingly a wreck of a piece of wood. The spirit of this didgeridoo though, the rich red heart wood at its core, was in fact unblemished by the fire and destruction. It is so beautiful, this contrast, that leaving the base as it was, and sanding the top half to bring out this colour is what this tree needed, to show itself fully as a didg. Art  in this case was superfluous, not needed at all for one to read its story. This is what we try to do; find its essence and try to help it shine.

The inside of the didgeridoo is substantially & finely worked. We have all manner of chisels, file and long tools and we go the extra mile to get the right shaped hole to produce the best sound, with the right back pressure and resonance. We endeavour to get the wall thickness of the mouthpiece at top and the bottom end thinner, and if there is a thicker wall section, it is in the middle of the didg enabling the didg to act like a clap stick does or any tapered sound device, where the sound emanates out through the thinner tapering ends. We use all manner of long tools and devices and in recent times even resort to the use of a camera that can be put down a didg. This helps us keep learning specifically, how each shift in the internal shape affects the sound. Working on the inside does not only mean widening the bottom half of the didg from the inside and the top half stays tighter. Sometimes we  widen the  inside of the top quarter or half just a little to change the pitch or the resonance or warmth of the sound, always just to the right amount so we maintain backpressure. Understanding didg making, sound, and playability, comes from thousands of hours and thousands of didgs.

In crafting the outside, less is shaved of towards the base, being we widen from the inside, and more is taken from the top being we seek to create maximum back pressure and playability. That said we like to allow the natural bulges and scar patterns to be featured. After shaping the outside, we step through different tools and different grit sandpapers and steel wools, until we have the outside smooth and ready for sealing.

Heartland Didgeridoos timber mouthpieces, mean that every time you go to play your didg it plays the same. With a wax mouthpiece  the shape can too easily move, and it can melt or mark your wall. Over decades its became obvious that the most common diameter of mouthpiece inside that suits all, sits between 30 & 32mm diameter. Larger suits deeper notes that require slower lip vibration, and higher pitch you can get away with a slightly smaller hole. Clients love our mouthpieces and a long time ago we stopped measuring,  it’s intuitive now, down to the slightly rolled inner edge and their sizing. If I ever check, it’s always between 30&32mm. We are particular too with what timber we use for mouthpieces. For longevity and playability we use termite hollowed wood, so  the didg and the mouthpiece have similar levels of moisture content, so they adjust together to humidity changes and drying over time. If a wood from a more humid area is used, it can shrink or crack more easily if they both are adjusting differently. Our didgs are made to last and to play with ease.

The inside finish is an epoxy resin seal for longevity. Epoxy gives the strongest most durable coat that stabilises any potential movement in a didg, and provides the most similar effect as does pouring water down the didg, in helping a didg resonate and project sound. External finish is several coats of Polyurethane varnish in a Matt finish, giving an oiled like appearance, with maximum durability and ease of touching up or re coating.

Each Heartland didgeridoo is made as a one off, with attention to bringing out its best aesthetically and musically.

Every didg is approached as a one off!  Artistically colours or burning via lines, dots and shading, is used to bring out or highlight firstly the natural features. We don’t overlay a story, it comes from the tree,  the bark patterning’s, the wood grain, the bulges, scars, defects and flow patterns as whole . If someone asks us to represent an animal or a story, we look for the didgeridoo that wants to be part of this, that jumps out as a yes. The photos below are an example of a didgeridoo for a client Mark Gillot from Colorado Springs. He described his desire for landscape art, incorporating also some ocean themes. The didg we selected had egg like  bulges in the bottom half that were perfect as the canvas of the land and the interconnected theme, and  then there was shift half way up with a natural border between land and water and perfect bulges that I was able to make into whale and turtles. This log was a natural pick and the trees spirit, the clients dreaming and the artists support come together.

The use of line and dot work is not used to copy a style, rather the natural and most aligned way to represent the landscape, flora and fauna and the sacred geometric patterns that exist as a fundamental matrix of the dreaming. Here are some examples of natures dot or line art in reptiles and birds, plus one example of an interpretation of a Death Adder in the video and the actual snake next to it, so you can see the inspiration and the use of dots to achieve a likeness. Dot art is perhaps the best way of reflecting landscape and layout.   There is something about the geometrical  patterning of dot and line work, that is akin to how landscape lays itself out and becomes the flow forms that is landscape, features being highlighted amidst a picture of interconnectedness. If there is a particular theme to the art of Heartland Didgeridoos, it is this. This style is akin to the flow forms created by bark or wood grain patterning’s or contours in the landscape.

Natures’s dot work in the Death adder snake above, inspiring the art in the didg VID following.