Cabbage Tree hats - local cottage industry

Details

Identifiernot specifiedPhotographernot specifiedDescriptionImmigrant settlers had come to New South Wales equipped with a variety of skills which they used to help them survive in their new environment. However, due to the differing climate of New South Wales compared to Europe, the skill of hat making to keep off the hot Summer sun was a new necessity.
Amongst the natural vegetation that grew on the sandstone country was a tree known as a cabbage tree palm (Livistona australis), so called because the early settlers had cooked and eaten its soft heart as a vegetable.
The leaves of the palm were soft and pliable, and the settlers learnt to dry and plait them, in order to fashion them into hats. Leaves from the palm were split into ribbons with a wooden handled tool set with a row of regularly spaced metal teeth. The ribbons were dried, then woven and folded into a long, six strand plait with a serrated edge on either side. The plait was then coiled and sewn, commencing at the centre of the crown and ending at the outer edge of the brim. These hats became popular with both men and women for Summer wear.
As many of the early families living at Dural and Galston were related to each other by marriage, the skill passed down from one family member to another, until it had become established as a cottage industry there. Thomas Samuel Best, grandson of Middle Dural pioneer George Best, is known to have sold his hats at prices ranging from fifteen shillings to five pounds.
Cabbage tree palms grow in the gullies throughout the Hornsby Shire, Cabbage Tree Hollow in Dural and Cabbage Tree Gully in Kuring-gai Chase National Park bear their names for that reason, although the plants are protected today.

Australian Folk Song ‘The Cabbage Tree Hat’, author unknown

There's something neat in a cabbage-tree hat,
When it fits the wearer's crown;
There's in it a sort of jaunty look,
With its streamers hanging down.
Let others boast of the felt or brab,
I cannot with them agree,
For nobody looks so like a swell,
As a man with a cabbage-tree.

Go where you will round Lambing Flat,
Every digger wears his cabbage-tree hat,
Go where you will, now think of that,
You're right it you've got a cabbage-tree hat.

Let the roughs and the muffs talk as they will
Of the rowdy cabbage-tree mob;
It's no paltry tile that costs a pound,
And adjust to adorn your nob.
Roam as you will round Sydney town,
The lasses will all agree,
You're just the man to escort them out,
If you've got on a good cabbage-tree.

It's been worn by men of every clime,
Though Australians bear the sway;
Though used at the present day.
No matter what caste, or class, or creed,
Whether rich or poor they be;
They'll never want a friend in need,
If they've got a good cabbage-tree.

The rich look down on the poor man's coat,
If but seedy it appear;
But a cabbage-tree hat is a different thing,
For it's free from a wealthy sneer,
New chums will wear it to ape old hands,
And get bush logic pat;
Yet, where would they be twixt you and me,
If minus the cabbage-tree hat.

Location

Building NameCottage industryDuralBest FamilyKuring-gai Chase National ParkTreesStreet:StreetView:&enabled=0&fov=90&heading=0&pitch=0&zoom=15

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Cabbage Tree hats - local cottage industry