The Australian greens uniform was used throughout the Vietnam War and on into the mid-1980s when the DPCU, or Auscam, uniform was introduced as the nation’s first universally issued camouflage uniform. The greens uniform went through a number of subtle pattern changes and over the years we have looked at the trousers and a couple of variants of the shirt on the blog. The uniform would not be complete, of course, without an accompanying item of headdress. Although the traditional Australian bush hat with its turned up brim had been very popular and was actually a useful garment in the field, it had a number of shortcomings. Being made of wool felt, it was partially waterproof, but when it did get saturated it took a long time to dry. More importantly, it was not something that could be easily folded up and stowed in a pocket when not being worn. The Australians therefore took their lead from the Indian bush hat developed in the Second World War and then copied by the British and produced a version of this for their troops in the field. By Vietnam this design was in widespread use and remains popular through to the present day- only the pattern of fabric it is made form have re3ally changed, proving that a good design will remain in use for many decades. Today we are looking at an example of the bush hat in green made in the early 1980s:

The hat has the usual features, with rows of stitching around the brim to help stiffen it and loops around the base of the crown to allow items of foliage to be tucked in for further camouflage. The vents in the crowns are simple, small, metal eyelets rather than brass grills that are sometimes seen:

The label inside the bush hat indicates that it was manufactured by the Australian Government Clothing Factory in 1983:

The Australian National Maritime Museum offers this useful timeline of the factory’s history:

1912 – The Federal Government of Australia establishes the Commonwealth Government Clothing Factory in Bank Street, South Melbourne. Core business is the manufacture and supply of uniforms and clothing products for Department of Defence and Post Master General.

1971 – The company moves to a purpose-built plant in Coburg, Victoria.

1988- Management transfers from federal government control to become the Clothing Division of Australian Defence Industries (ADI). Core business continues to be the manufacture and supply of combat and ceremonial uniforms.

1989 – ADI Clothing Division diversifies manufacturing across 3 plants: Coburg and Bendigo in Victoria, and Leichhardt in New South Wales.

1992 – Manufacturing operations consolidate to the Bendigo plant.

1995 – ADI Clothing Division is privatised, becoming Australian Defence Apparel Pty Ltd.

2011 – Australian Defence Apparel purchased by Parsons Logistik Pty Ltd