{"id":922758,"date":"2026-10-10T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922758\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T07:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T07:00:14","slug":"piano-taken-down-gold-mine-for-unique-underground-concert-in-bendigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922758\/","title":{"rendered":"Piano taken down gold mine for unique underground concert in Bendigo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A unique piano concert 61 metres underground in an old gold mine.<\/p>\n

That was the brainwave of Bendigo Fine Music chair Thomas Heywood.<\/p>\n

And yesterday that brainwave became reality, with a piano descending into the Central Deborah Gold Mine in Bendigo for a one-off evening performance.<\/p>\n

The 300kg piano was formerly owned by Mr Heywood’s mother, who was a renowned concert pianist.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of those classic ‘don’t drop the piano’ scenarios,” Mr Heywood said.<\/p>\n

“We couldn’t find any evidence that this has been done before.<\/p>\n

“It’s really quite emotional; it sounds fantastic in here. It is an amazing room for sound. There’s a timber ceiling and hardstone walls, and they’re ideal for musical performance.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Thomas Heywood came up with the idea of holding the concert in a gold mine to mark 175 years since gold was discovered in Bendigo. (ABC News: Tyrone Dalton)<\/p>\n

The Bendigo Fine Music event celebrated 175 years since gold was first discovered in the central Victorian city.<\/p>\n

“In 1851, it changed our wonderful country forever,” Mr Heywood said.<\/p>\n

“We were always taught in school that basically the riches that followed from gold made possible what would have taken 500 years in European history to be achieved in a mere 50 years to Federation.”<\/p>\n

Friday’s concert was limited to 60 attendees, who were allowed to remove their hard hats once in the concert room.<\/p>\n

Pianist Yasmin Rowe said performing this rare and unusual concert was exciting.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never played underground before, and this is just so special. When I entered this room, I thought it was so, so beautiful,” Ms Rowe said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got this millions-of-years-old rock there right behind the piano; the light, the colour, the atmosphere is wonderful.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yasmin Rowe and Ian Munro played before an audience of 60 people. (ABC News: Tyrone Dalton)<\/p>\n

Ms Rowe and fellow pianist Ian Munro said the underground concert made playing the piano interesting again.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite a dry acoustic. We have to adjust in real time, so using less pedal cause it’s quite reverberant.”<\/p>\n

Mr Munro said the rare and unusual concert brought back the memory of a conversation with his piano teacher at the age of 14, who questioned whether he would continue to love playing the piano as an adult.<\/p>\n

“When I was 30 [and still loved playing piano], and now I’m very much older than 30, I’m still very interested; it’s still got that magic for me.”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

The main body of the piano was covered with a blanket to protect from moisture in the tunnels.\u00a0 (ABC News: Anna McGuinness)<\/p>\n

The operation to get the instrument underground was a family affair by Joshua McPherson, his wife Jo and son Sam.<\/p>\n

Mr McPherson said it was “definitely the most unusual” place he had ever taken a piano.<\/p>\n

The disassembled instrument was wheeled on a trolley into a lift and rolled along the rocky tunnels of the mine.<\/p>\n

“We were worried about moisture dropping from the ceiling \u2014 that was our main concern. [It was] a little bit rough underfoot but nothing scary really,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nic Hamilton was tasked with making sure the piano stayed in tune.\u00a0 (ABC News: Anna McGuinness)<\/p>\n

Once in place, it was over to piano technician Nic Hamilton to ensure nothing had gone awry on the journey and to tune the piano before the concert.<\/p>\n

“It’s on the humid side but it takes some hours, perhaps even overnight to seep into the piano and cause any problems,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a fun thing to do, and it’s very typical of Thomas [Heywood] to come up with projects that are interesting and exciting.”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

The piano is moved into the entrance to Central Deborah Gold Mine. (ABC News: Anna McGuinness)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A unique piano concert 61 metres underground in an old gold mine. That was the brainwave of Bendigo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,490332,490331,4946,134,5284,53495,33044],"class_list":["post-922758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bendigo-fine-music","tag-central-deborah-gold-mine","tag-concert","tag-entertainment","tag-gold","tag-gold-mine","tag-piano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}