A clean-up at a resort in northern Western Australia has ended on a sour note when a baby grand piano was mistakenly turfed at a rubbish tip.

Fortunately the historic Steinway & Sons piano — previously owned by Lord Alistair McAlpine, an advisor to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher — was saved from destruction by an eagled-eyed local musician.

Steinway pianos cost up to $80,000 new and $20,000 second-hand.

Musician Wil Thomas said he was "shocked and stupefied" when he took his garden waste to the dump on Sunday and found 16-year-old Tui Warihana playing the baby grand piano.

"It was quite surreal. It was like something out of a Tom Waits video clip," he said.

"There was this very competent musician who was sitting on a pile of rubbish playing what appeared to me out of the corner of my eye to be a broken piano."

The piano, wrapped in blankets and sitting on cushions, was loaded on to the back of a trailer. ( Supplied: Wil Thomas )

Mr Thomas said the Steinway baby grand piano sounded in perfect tune.

"This beautiful sound was coming out this beautiful piano in the tropical hell of the Broome tip," he said.

"I expected to hear this tinkling sound of a broken piano.

"This young guy was playing Moonlight Sonata on this piano, which just sounded heavenly."

Piano damaged during dumping

The piano, from the Sam Male Room at the Cable Beach Club, had been turfed on its side and was without two of its three legs. Its lid was lying about 2 metres away.

"I straight away recognised the beauty of the thing," Mr Thomas said.

He asked Tui if he would take the piano home, but the teenager had no means of transporting or storing it.

Mr Thomas says he felt sad that "this incredible older statesman of the musical family" was tossed away. ( ABC Kimberley: Leah McLennan )

Mr Thomas then called his friend, businessman and pianist Don Bacon, who owns a Steinway himself.

"I told him there was a Steinway at the Broome rubbish tip," he said.

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"He said 'I'm on my way'."

While Mr Thomas waited he attempted to put the piano back together, and Tui played Ryuichi Sakamoto's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.

"I sheltered it from the sun and put the lid on it and tried to cover it up so it wasn't damaged any further by the sun that was beating down fiercely," Mr Thomas said.

It took three men to lift the piano on to a trailer that had been padded with cushions and blankets.

The piano is now in Mr Bacon's shed.

Don Bacon, who owns a Steinway himself, wasted no time in getting to the tip when he heard a baby grand had been thrown away. ( ABC Kimberley: Leah McLennan )

From broken keyboard to baby grand

Tui's mother Shary Umemba-Duffy said her son, who practices on a small keyboard at home, could not believe his eyes when he spotted the piano at the tip.

"He sat playing, contemplating rescue scenarios … I was concerned one was to take up residence," Ms Umemba-Duffy said.

"The intolerable cruelty — having spent years of playing on a 66 Casio keyboard with only 61 functional keys."

Ms Umemba-Duffy said she was relieved when Mr Thomas came along to rescue the piano.

Mr Thomas said the Steinway piano is in good working order, despite missing its legs. ( ABC Kimberley: Leah McLennan )

Misunderstanding of the highest order, resort boss says

Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa general manager Ron Sedon said he had been "horrified" to learn the instrument had been ditched in the clean-out.

He said its previous owner was the resort's founder Lord McAlpine.

"It was offered to me about seven or eight years ago. It was part of a collection of general furniture that was stored in Perth that was related to our previous owner," he said.

Mr Sedon said the staff tasked with undertaking the clean-up were "clearly not music aficionados".

"A case of misunderstanding of the highest order," he said.

"I can assure you those staff have been put in the picture as to my expectations about these things in the future."

He hopes to soon have the piano back at the resort.

"Now it's all about getting our baby grand Steinway back safely," Mr Sedon said.