Due to the lack of imported hats and the need to wear a hat in hot climate areas, cabbage palm hats were also a popular item of early Australian dress. These hats are significant as the only distinctive item of Australian dress made entirely from Australian materials, with the plaiting often done by local Aboriginal groups.
Serena Linden, Myers winning hat, Melbourne, 2006

Serena Linden, Myers winning hat, Melbourne, 2006. Courtesy of Serena Linden and Victorian Racing Club.

Emu feathers and horses have also influenced local dress since the 1800s. By 1900 an emu feather plume adorned the slouch hats of the Australian Light Horsemen, worn on active service in the Boer War and again in Egypt during the First World War soldiers fought for the right to wear this plume.

The Akubra hat, made from rabbit hair in a mechanised felt making process, perhaps epitomises the look of bushwear. The label 'Akubra' was coined in 1918 and has become synonymous with the hats themselves (Eager 1998).

Feathers, felt and trimmings continue to play a large part in the labour intensive Australia's headwear and millinery industry. A Millinery Award and Design Award is presented each year at the Melbourne Cup by the Victorian Racing Club. Styles vary from the quirky to the outrageous and draw their inspiration from Australian flora and fauna as well as other global influences. Millinery themes, colour, materials and inspiration can vary from sea aneonome through serpentine trees to a black cockatoo's plume and tropical flowers as evidenced by Serena Linden's creations winner of the Myer Fashions on the Field Millinery Award at Flemington in 2006.

Today the headwear/millinery industry comprises manufacturing of high volume production headwear, and creation of customised millinery, in an small trader and fashion environment. An estimated 280 businesses employed 2,560 people, generating an annual turnover of $245 million, in 2000-01.

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