Harvesting practices for larger didgeridoo shops

Didgeridoos grow on trees and are harvested when they are ripe inside, developed some aboriginal artwork on the outside and the bees waxed the mouthpiece... and the harvesting is done in a didgeridoo shop!

More seriously, as the question recently became quite serious:

The how to harvest didgeridoo sticks used to be an easy question. With the right permissions the didgeridoo maker went to the bush, knocked the suitable looking trees in the proximity of termite nests and if they sounded hollow he cut them down. On the spot he cut the sticks to size, got rid of branches and some of the dirt with the termites, he even stripped of the bark making the didgeridoo sticks lighter for carrying them away on his shoulders. For all this he needed the respect for the environment which he learned from the elders and some knowledge which would have come with experience. Then from time to time he would sell a couple of sticks to a small didgeridoo shop.

Lately, the answers to the who, when, where questions about didgeridoo harvesting are getting very nasty with the increase of didgeridoo sales. Today, non-aboriginal workgroups using chainsaws, 4WD utes, and even helicopters, are cutting tracts of trees on industrial scale impacting heavily on tree population and wildlife, as many birds and animals are using these hollow branches to hide or nest. On top of this legitimate but industrial type harvesting, there are poaching gangs as well, who only care for the material gain and are using the whole arsenal of other poachers from bullying to terrorizing with guns.

In some areas in the Northern Territory and Western Australia legitimate harvesters are issued with tags which can help to trace legitimate didgeridoo trade from harvesting to the point of sale in didgeridoo shops. Hopefully, this tagging of didgeridoos produced by good harvesting methods, this (white-)listing of the good guys will do the intended purpose, and eventually will eliminate the bad practices and the bad guys from didgeridoo sales.

I'm happy to recommend the original aboriginal didgeridoos, because they are harvested in a careful, good husbandry manner on small, family size scale by local Aborigines. Read more about our harvesting methods on the next page or browse the best selection of aboriginal musical instruments in our on-line didgeridoo shop.