Akubra

Fur-felt hats have been made in this Macleay Valley town for well over a century, and the workshop on South Street remains the source — the maker dates its hatting lineage to 1876. The adjoining retail store, a longstanding local fixture, reopened in late 2024 after several years shut, and now carries several hundred hats across the current range, from straw through to the heavy-bodied rabbit-fur felts the name is known for. It is less a boutique than a working landmark: the shop sits at the factory where the hats are blocked and finished, a short detour off the highway at Kempsey. For anyone interested in where an Australian icon is actually manufactured, rather than merely sold, this is the place to see it.