Originally posted by: Karma
I would seriously look into Bambusa Textilis var Gracilis. It's not the "prettiest" (vs. dendrocalamus minor amoenus, or bambusa lako, etc) but it sounds like the best fit for your needs/space. It's a tight clumping, straight growing, medium-small height and diameter bamboo. The leaves are smaller (I tend to prefer the large tropical leaves). I would also highly recommend you amend the soil with compost and make sure the area is irrigated. You can purchase cheap compost at one of the municipal waste places, such as Simply Organic in Melbourne. It's well worth the little extra work and cost, because you will get quicker results and the plants will look better overall for a long time. Annually I would feed them with some compost as well to keep them green and purdy.
Went with Karmas suggestion based on its small footprint. Will see how it goes