In the world of hats, horses and hosiery, a remote north Queensland milliner is giving kangaroos their time to shine.
Sherilee Honnery has been making hats and fascinators for 15 years, but has recently been inspired to try a new medium and style.
"The leather I use is actually from our local tannery in Hughenden, and it is dyed kangaroo leather," she said.
Ms Honnery said the idea came to her after being inspired to use products from the tannery located down the road from her workshop.
"I really wanted to make sure that I had something that was not just Australian made, but locally Hughenden made," she said.
The milliner said her newfound material was an easy medium to use.
"It absorbs water — so you can mould it and shape it, and it will hold shape without any stiffening," she said.
Ms Honnery said one benefit of using 'roo leather was that she was able to use off-cuts from the skins.
Many kangaroos have scratches on their hindquarters from run ins with barbed wire fences and this translates to damaged skins.
"The beauty of what I do is, because everything is cut up quite small, I'm not looking for A-grade leather," Ms Honnery said.
She said she makes button pieces, hand-tooled flowers, fascinators and hats, which are becoming increasingly popular for winter racing carnivals.
"The tannery is just outside of town, and I go out and visit them and take out paint colour charts and say, 'these are the colours for next year, can you do so many skins up'," she said.
She explained that the 'roo shooters then go out and bring back the skins, before the leather is tanned to match the colours of the season.
"I did [give] them a challenge last year. White and ivory were very popular — they're very hard to get, those colours, and they came forward," she said.
Engineering race day fashion
Once the colourful leather is on Ms Honnery's work bench, it becomes a process of trial and error.
"It's almost like engineering," she said with a laugh.
"There are certain things that you have to use, like different wires, to make sure that everything can sit up high enough."
Ms Honnery said while her creations were different to the norm, they were increasing in popularity across the nation.
"I think it's a point of difference. I try not to do two things the same," she said.
"And I think that people like the fact that [their fascinator] is leather."
