BUSHMEN'S DRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 7

BUSHMEN'S DRESS

THE MODERN CHANGE

OLD FAVOURITES GONE

Today most bushmen dress much the same as the. city dweller, except that the real bushmen do not wear collars and ties, says a writer in the "Adelaide Chronicle." A modern drover might eafily be mistaken for a suburban dweller and a station hand for a city worker. No longer do we see the calfskin waistcoats that were once the prida of the men of the bush. These calfskin waistcoats were made from the skins of new-born bull calves, and the colours were carefully selected. A spotted skin was selected if possible. The skin was tanned with wattle bark and treated for weeks to make it as soft as chamois leather. A tailor wai giy.en the skin to make up into the waistcoat, and often he was suppliedwith special buttons. Some bushmen preferred the pretty quandong seeds for buttons, but others reckoned they were too cheap so they had buttons made from sovereigns. It was not only for flashness that bushmen wore them, however. There was nothing ■else nearly so warm in the cold weather. From the same material slippers were also made. These slippers looked neat and wore well. A pair of these from a nicely-marked skin was worth anything up to two or three pounds. KOALA SKIN COATS. Good bush coats were made from koala skins, too, where koalas were plentiful. In fact, it was the demand for koala skins for use in making coatt for the miners who went to the Klondyke that resulted in these harmless little creatures being almost wiped but. Opossum skins were extensively used for making caps and gloves. Cabbage-tree hats are rarely seen nowadays, and one wonders why these fine Australian hats ever went.out of vogue. They were easily and cheaply made and looked as neat as the best panama. In the early days they were' worn by drovers, boundary riders, bankers, professional men, and rouseabouts. Some cost a few' shillings, while others cost several pounds. One presented -to Bill Beach, the noted sculler, is said to have cost twenty pounds. You'd see whole- families wearing' cabbage-tree hats and all the hats were made by the woman of the 'bouse. . ~ ■ ■ ' ' Hat-bands were as carefully selected at, one time as ties and socks are today. There was a great demand for snake skins for hat-bands. A skin bearing a striking and. unusual pattern was worth anything up to a pound. These snake-skin hat-bands were practically everlasting and they were transferred from an old hat to a hew one when the old hat was discarded. Kangaroo <■ skin overcoats wer» popular: in the colder climates. Recently, for a wager, a man walked through the, streets of a capital wearing a kangaroo skin overcoat. He created so .much attention that traffic was interfered with. The fur was not removed from the skins, but was left on the outside, of the coat. "IS HE AN EXPLORER?" A few years ago such an overcoat would not have even been glanced at in a country town, but today the sight of such an overcoat on a man would possibly bring the question: "Is he an Antarctic "explorer?" Prince Alberts were worn by men who could not. afford to buy socks, but there were quite a number of bushmen who seemed to prefer them to socks. They could well afford to buy socks, but they reckoned thaf socks gave them sore feet . Another once popular article was the fly-veil. You'll still see them in those parts of the country where flies are very troublesome, but they are not worn nearly so much as they were 30 or 40 years ago. Soon, it seems, the big red handkerchief worn round the neck will be added to the long list of obsolete wear. ing apparel even in the outback. With it •will be listed the red necktie. A man wearing a red necktie these days is apt to be-taken for a Communist. At one time you could always pick a real bushman by his dress. But today you will find it very difficult in a city even at a show, to pick out the bushmen from the city dwellers. The Australian bushman never did dress as spectacular as the cowboy of America,/ but. still, he wore a distinctive dress that branded him a bushman. It is to be regretted,that these men of the outback have lost the art of dressing distinctively. It seems that even the familiar elastic-side boots will soon be discarded.