ROOMS OF SINGING BAMBOO

I have a new passion - bamboo. I went to see Tommy Lindley at Bamboo Creations at Burringbar... can't miss his ten acres of towering bamboo. Single handedly he's turning his property into a bamboo showplace, tourist attraction and information centre on just how you can use bamboo. And not just for landscaping, but as a sustainable alternative building material. Tommy has just come back from India where he attended a convention with 800 other suppliers to learn more. He showed me pictures of bamboo being used for everything from furniture, handbags, knick knacks to houses. Asia of course has been using bamboo for centuries but Tommy believes it is the way of the future here - especially as wood becomes rarer and more expensive. All the bamboo I saw is clumping so you can grow it around your house. Over 1300 varieties! Tommy had made outdoor "rooms" of living bamboo (a meditation room and an outdoor shower) which were wonderful to sit inside and enjoy the soft filtered light, the gentle swish and creak of this ultra strong flexible plant. It looks after itself, is self mulching (the ground underfoot in a plantation was soft white shredded foliage, no weeds) and fast growing. I saw one clump of purple black bamboo that had reached nearly twenty metres tall in less than a year. Bamboo generates more oxygen that an equivalent stand of trees. It prevents soil erosion so is good for river banks and deforested areas. But the sheer beauty of the varieties and to see it in such wonderful stands, or in pots, swept me away. It looks nicer that straggly palms and nothing to clean up. Just slice off new shoots as they appear at the base (cook them!)if you don't want the bamboo to get thicker. Tommy was going to grow Xmas bush and planted bamboo as a windbreak but became addicted and now grows nothing else. Soon bamboo plantations will earn carbon credits. I got interested because Boris put down a gorgeous bamboo floor in my new studio (cheaper than cork tiles) and it looks magnificent. Came in finished lacquered flooring strips we just glued to the cement slab. I wish every shop in town would stick a few pots of bamboo out the front, it makes you feel good just to look at it. Tommy will talk about bamboo to groups and is going to run bamboo furniture making courses. Go and check him out. 66771041