In the stillness of dawn during Anzac Day in northern France, a deep and unmistakably Australian sound rises across rows of white headstones.

Known to most as the didgeridoo, it is the ancient sound of the yidaki.

Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2) Lachlan Youll, formerly of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, stands among the fallen, playing into the cold morning air. 

This year, he will perform the Army Songline, a ceremonial composition grounded in First Nations tradition and shaped by the Australian Army’s history.

“The Army Songline tells a story – of those men, of home,” said WO2 Youll, who has family ties to the Bidjara people of Queensland.

“Especially when we’re overseas, it reminds soldiers of where they come from and of those who have fallen.

“It’s spiritual and emotional. The sounds are meaningful, especially for ceremony.” 

The yidaki, originating in Arnhem Land, is one of the oldest instruments in the world. It has been used for ceremony, storytelling and spiritual practice for thousands of years. Its connection to military commemoration dates back to World War II, when it was played to honour the fallen alongside Australian soldiers in northern Australia.

More than 80 years later, the instrument echoes across the former battlefields of World War I.

“It sets the scene and it makes people reflect, not just on where they’re from, but why soldiers went to war, and what it all means,” WO2 Youll said.

'In the future, I’d like people to hear the Army Songline and immediately recognise it, like they do with the Last Post, and connect it to Australia and Anzac Day.'

More than 1200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are recognised as having served in World War I, according to the Australian War Memorial. Many fought and died far from home, and are buried across France and Belgium, or commemorated on memorials to the missing.

They served a nation that, at the time, did not fully recognise them.

Among them was Benjamin Combo, a 26-year-old from Barambah Mission in Queensland. Initially rejected from enlistment for being “too Aboriginal”, he tried again and was accepted into the 3rd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

His service was tragically brief. Just weeks after enlisting in November 1916, Private Combo fell ill, dying little more than a month after putting on the uniform he had fought to wear.

Like Private Combo, more than a century later, WO2 Youll served in an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Where Combo had to fight to be allowed to serve, WO2 Youll is entrusted to lead an international ceremony with his yidaki.

The contrast is not lost on him.

“Those young men weren’t allowed to join the AIF, so they had to lie to serve overseas,” he said.

“That was incredibly courageous.

“They fought in wars that didn’t necessarily involve them, and when they came home, they weren’t treated the same as other veterans.”

'It sets the scene and it makes people reflect, not just on where they’re from, but why soldiers went to war, and what it all means.'

The Army Songline WO2 Youll plays carries those stories through sound; of country, of service and of sacrifice. The initiative is being developed to recognise Army’s proud history of First Nations service. Starting with Arnhem Land and the yidaki, it hopes to expand the songline project to other mobs.

On Anzac Day, across the same grounds where Australians once advanced, fought and fell, that sound rises again, and WO2 Youll hopes it will endure.

“It’s an iconic instrument. When people hear it, they immediately think of Australia,” he said.

“In the future, I’d like people to hear the Army Songline and immediately recognise it, like they do with the Last Post, and connect it to Australia and Anzac Day.” 

Far from home, the Army Songline on the yidaki ensures the voices of those who were once denied a place, are heard on historic ground.