How Tasmania's St Andrews Caledonian Pipe Band is setting itself up for a loud future

Sally-Anne Richter's love of playing the bagpipes started when she was a teenager.

Before moving to Tasmania she attended a presbyterian school in Victoria and played in an all-female pipe group.

For Ms Richter it helped normalise the idea of women and girls playing the bagpipes, despite it being the traditional domain of men for centuries.

"Pipe bands originated from Scottish regiments, which were always traditionally made up of men," she told ABC Northern Tasmania.

"So it's always been a very male-dominated area. Females didn't get into the scene until much later."

Earlier this year, the 35-year-old Launceston vet was named as the new pipe major for the St Andrews Caledonian Pipe Band.

"The pipe major is the head of the band's pipe corps," Ms Richter said.

"We select music for the pipes to play, help with bagpipe maintenance and also help teach the music."

It is the first time a woman has held the role since the group's foundation in 1933.

Ms Richter is currently in Europe preparing for an appearance at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, where she will be guest starring with a Canadian pipe band.

It is one of many unique opportunities around the world she has enjoyed in two decades of playing Scottish and Celtic music.

"I never expected the opportunities I have had when I first started playing," Ms Richter said.

"Through bagpipes I have travelled the world, played at important events, played on mountain tops and even for Queen Elizabeth II."

Ms Richter is not the first pipe major from the St Andrews Caledonian Pipe Band to have played for the former monarch.

The group's first pipe major, Bob McKenzie, and pipe sergeant Malcolm Murray, in 1954 played for the royal couple at the sheep grazing property Connorville, near Cressy, during the Queen's tour of Australia.

The McKenzie tartan is still worn by the members of the St Andrews Caledonian Pipe Band when they perform in public at events across Tasmania and internationally.

Margaret East is a current committee member and says her father Bob was a stalwart of the pipe band in the early days when it played an integral role in the community.

"The band put on street marches every New Year's Eve, one at 6pm and one at 11:30pm," she said.

"Then they would finish outside The Launceston Hotel at midnight.

"After that they'd all go to my grandmother's house and she would make a big haggis."

The McKenzies were keeping alive a Scottish tradition in Tasmania that began in the 1820s when Scots started arriving in the state, attracted by a grant scheme that provided many with their first opportunity to own land.

The 1864 census shows 10 per cent of the population belonged to the Church of Scotland.

They and their descendants formed Caledonian societies and pipe bands, some of which still continue across the state today.

Ms East spent much of her childhood supporting the band's performances, either taking part in highland dancing or looking after her dad's uniform.

As a young girl, however, learning the bagpipes was not encouraged.

"If Dad had a second parade in the afternoon, it was my job to replace his white starched collar, clean his spats and shine his buckles and he'd head out again," Ms East said.

On an otherwise quiet weeknight in Launceston's central business district, the piercing drone of bagpipes fills the chilly air.

Inside, on the first floor of an old music hall, a small group of pipe players are testing their instruments before rehearsals begin.

The sound, at times, is deafening.

Three generations of the Potter family are in attendance, including 13-year-old Tom Potter, who has been playing in the St Andrews Caledonian Pipe Band for the last year and a half.

"My dad got me into it and then I started to enjoy the sound of bagpipes too," he said.

"I think it really gets me."

Mr Potter said his favourite bagpipe song was Hellbound Train by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, but admitted it was "pretty fast" and he was yet to master it.

Ms Richter says it is the friendships and sense of community inside the pipe music scene that she wants to share with the band's newest members.

"We encourage younger players to get involved with us in parades like the Christmas parade in Launceston, Relay for Life and Anzac Day," she said.

"New music, especially written for younger players, and modern music, also helps."

But she admits the band needs to improve its rehearsal space if it is to really thrive and grow. Band members at the moment are struggling to store all their gear properly and rehearsals are restricted.

"We normally try to have breakout rooms for sectional work and we don't have that in our current rehearsal room," Ms Richter said.

"So if anyone has a hall that can be divided into small rooms, please let us know. We are definitely on the hunt."

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