Today we meet a man who makes musical instruments. He uses wood from native Australian trees to build double basses - very large wooden, stringed instruments.



RENE RAULIN: It is a very one-to-one relationship with the wood. It indicates that you have to, you must have, actually, an intuitive understanding about the timber, how the timber feels, how it looks, how it works.

JONATHAN BEAL: Rene Raulin has been an instrument maker for 15 years. It's a vocation that hasn't made him his fortune, but for Raulin, it's not about money. It's about passion.

RENE RAULIN: And that's what's actually fun about the work. You really are working one-on-one with the timber, the blade on the timber.

JONATHAN BEAL: In a good year, he'll make just two instruments, carving slowly and carefully, developing an almost personal relationship with his materials. Raulin uses words like "sculpting" and "fluidity of movement" to describe the process of turning a block of wood into a double bass. In his studio, traditional materials abound.

JONATHAN BEAL: Raulin's dream is to develop native timber instruments from a cottage to a commercial industry in Australia. But do his creations have what it takes to compete against Europe's master craftsmen, who are backed by centuries of tradition?

As associate principal double bass for the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Joan Wright knows what makes a good instrument.

JOAN WRIGHT: More than anything, it's the sound of the instrument. You'll put up with any discomfort, really, if the sound is something that you love and you want to play that instrument. You won't then care if it's too big or too small, or the shoulders aren't right. So the sound is everything.

JONATHAN BEAL: Raulin and Wright both believe classical instruments made of native timber can make the grade. But just as it takes time to make an instrument, it'll also take time to establish an industry, and success is not expected overnight.

JOAN WRIGHT: I think the more people that can actually try the instruments, it will help to break down the barriers anyway. And there are barriers, I think, with musicians who are used to the traditional ways.