Hats, the Aussie capital city and american King O'Malley

[Ephraim Tutt]

Now here's a pic full of a variety of hats - I can see fedoras, homburgs, what looks like a pith helmet and a plethora of lovely bonnets. The centre of attention is Mr King (his name not his title) O'Malley as Minister for Home affairs, driving in the first peg into the soil of what would become Australia's capital, Canberra.

A native of Kansas and New York (though he claimed to be Canadian so as to be considered a British citizen!) it's unlikely that O'Malley ever sought or was given Australian citizenship, which renderd him ineligible for election to the Australian parliament - but that fact wasn't revealed till much later. Those damned yankees. They'll take over the world if you don't watch 'em!

O'Malley was certainly a colourful character in the early years of Australia's commonwealth - and one worth reading about.

But I do love the hats...

 

[rlk]

Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin

More Yankees. The original designer and architect for Canberra out of Chicago , both he and his wife were formerly employed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Couldn't find a picture of him wearing a hat so I guess this is off topic.
Hold on... he did own a hat:

 

[Ephraim Tutt]

More Yankees. The original designer and architect for Canberra out of Chicago , both he and his wife were formerly employed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Couldn't find a picture of him wearing a hat so I guess this is off topic.
Hold on... he did own a hat:

Well RLK, the hat theme was just a ruse to slip something of our shared Aussie/USofA history on to a hat thread. It's not surprising that King O'Malley would ensure one of his countrymen got the gig to design Canberra. But the Chicago lad did a fine job building a national capital out in the middle of nowhere. He also designed some fine buildings elsewhere in the Land of Oz.

And wore a great hat too...apparently.