From the playful heart of Australia, toys of substance and soul, as stunning as the landscape, as dramatic as the people: tough/subtle, robust/stylish, practical/elegant.

Music and Us Our Workshop Our World Our Histoy

The method

Create with flair and proudly handcraft items to last the test of usage and time.
Use natural fibres as a preferred option.
Maintain an overriding commitment to safety.
Use robust and lasting construction techniques.
Ensure a pleasing visual appearance, ease of use and maintenance.
Develop a high level of intelligently planned simplicity.
Be responsible in our use of the world's resources.
Do it once, Do it right, Use the best materials we can, and do it because it matters.
We plan to keep designing toys that inspire and delight!

Our vision:

To create toys of substance and soul to echo cascading generations of laughter and endless fun in children's lives.
To energise your children's play with our Teepees, Mellow-sounding Kids' Drums, Hobby Horses and Bouncing Horses.
We hope the creativity children derive from playing such imaginative games, reverberates positively throughout their lives, improving their families and communities.

We at Dobbin and Drum Toys are committed to responsibly using the world's resources, because the future of our children and the environment actually matters.

Music and Us

Albert Einstein is recognized as one of the smartest men who has ever lived. A little known fact about Einstein is that when he was young he did extremely poorly in school. His grade school teachers told his parents to take him out of school because he was "too stupid to learn" and it would be a waste of resources for the school to invest time and energy in his education. The school suggested that his parents get Albert an easy, manual labor job as soon as they could. His mother did not think that Albert was "stupid". Instead of following the school's advice, Albert's parents bought him a violin. Albert became good at the violin. Music was the key that helped Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. Einstein himself says that the reason he was so smart is because he played the violin. He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most. A friend of Einstein, G.J. Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin.

No, not the latest Dobbin & Drum Toys employee!

Bodily Responses to Music
In general, responses to music are able to be observed. It has been proven that music influences humans both in good and bad ways. These effects are instant and long lasting. Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe. Music can also be used to change a person's mood, and has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously. Music also has the ability to strengthen or weaken emotions from a particular event such as a funeral. (From http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html)

"Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and a gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, true and beautiful." Plato (Thanks Ainslie for letting us reference this quote from your website.)

Music and the Brain. Oliver Sacks and Norman Swan, ABC Radio National, The Science Show, 5/7/08 "I think music certainly has expressive powers and evocative powers which language doesn't have, which nothing else has. I think we have a need...you know, .........pressure on the heart of the incommunicable, and some of that incommunicable I think can be communicated with music, and that's very important. And, as you say, we sing together, we dance together, music is a tremendous bonder and I think especially the rhythmic part of music. And I think our present notion of composers and performers on the one hand and audience on the other is very late and secondary. Basically music is a communal activity....." You can listen or read this in its entirity by going to www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow - 5th July 2008.

Chris Berry recently toured eastern Australia with Brisbane based Spankinhide as support musicians. Spankinhide and Dobbin and Drum stalwart, Aidan (on kora, middle), and Chris (imbera, right) seen here in a first warm-up. Also seen Dobbin and Drum design maestro, Joan, soaking up the ambience. For more on Chris Berry (and his usual band) Panjea, just go the Google: Chris Berry picked up where Paul Simon left off: "The conscious lyrics are a road map for humanity and Chris is one of the few people able to carry this message to a wide audience......."

Aidan (centre) has recently spent time in Guinea pursuing his interest in the kora. Performing recently with friends at a fund raiser for a health centre in rural Uganda (visit them at www.Mukwano-Australia.org).	Dobbin and Drum drummers since birth, Aidan (centre) and Piers (left) take their fun seriously. Here as regular performers of west African percussion, with long term friend and mentor, Elliott Orr (right). For more info: elliott@talkinthedrum.com.au
(Picture at right) Aidan had the privilege of living with BK (left) in Conarkry, Guinea, in 2006 while studying music. See here playing together. More about Bangourake at: www.djembekan.net/welcome/

Our Workshop

Good-bye Del
Christmas 2007 saw our wonderful friend and colleague, Del Thompson, sew her last teepee, hobby horse and drum fabric!
Del is a most extra-ordinary person: a cheerful and willing staff member, meticulous and conscientious solver of problems, able to stay calm and relaxed - no matter what chaos was going on around her, but most importantly: a friend for life.
There are so many kids playing with our items - indeed there are people playing with their children with the very items that were bought for them when they were kids - that Del helped make!
It would not have happened if it hadn't been for Del's attention to detail, and willingness to work away, making going to the workshop a wonderful experience for all of us - for nearly 2 decades!
Del, you will be greatly missed by us all.
Thanks Del, from the bottom of our hearts.......

Dobbin and Drum Toys is proud to have been able to have Abebe in our workshop. He is one of many extraodinary people whom we have been able to provide their first paid work in Australia. Abebe is looking for a significant sponsor to help in his preparations for the Beijing Para Olympics Any suggestions and/or offers? Read Abebe Fekadu's story here

	WALA spend time hanging out at the Dobbin & Drum Toys workshop while staying in Brisbane during their tours. From Ghana in West Africa, the five-piece percussion and dance group named themselves after the word for "life" in their local language. Check them out at: www.walaislife.com
Ibrahim making drums at the workshop. A dentist with international experience, he has just passed Australian dental exams (2007).

Our World

Photos from Revillo Toys, UK: Matilda, Eliza and Jessie at Portgwidden Beach, St Ives, Cornwall

Stradbroke Handicap photos. Text: Racing hasn't been this much fun since - since? Well at least since you were on a hobby horse also! Showing their colours and style in preparation for the Winter Racing Carnival, Brisbane, July 2008.

Not the usual handiwork to come out of the Dobbin and Drum Toy workshop. But we did run up the fabric in these props - for the Australian launch of Shrek III (mid 2007). Another time we played the "toy-maker's toymaker" was when we made, printed and supplied our Teepees to LEGO™, back in 1997....nice to be approached by the "industry" when they want that something really special!

Kids being kids, on the Island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, playing in a Daintree Teepee donated by D&D Toys.

"We would like to take this opportunity to say a big 'thankyou' for the teepee you sent - believe me
it has given great pleasure.
The children here are, in many ways, unspoiled, and such gifts as these entrance them."

If you would like to also contribute to this great school on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, please email Christine at: johnmackaycom@hotmail.com

Our History

Nathan and Rachael playing Dobbin & Drum Toys' Mellow Sounding Kids' Drums prototype in 1984	Nathan with his drum 2007	Rachael 2005

Aidan (L), 1987 See Aidan in 2007 below!	Son, Rupert on Dobbin and Drum Toys made stilts, 1988	At the Queensland Clydesdale Society Annual Field Day, 1987

Dobbin and Drum Toys introduced their Hobby Horses at the Queensland Clydesdale Society Annual Field Day in 1988 and since then, have been committed to making the best toys from the best materials possible.

Photographs displayed on website from many sources.