Home Hill has an unusual collection of jackets associated with Australian Prime Ministers.
Home Hill’s connection with Australian political life is also reflected in a collection of jackets associated with Australian Prime Ministers from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd onwards. Current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese recently donated one of his jackets for the collection via Senator Anne Urquhart.
The collection arose from the Enormity Project. In 1998, the group of young people from Enormity Inc. undertook to collect 100,000 winter coats in an effort to provide warmth and protection from the cold winter elements, a coat for every Australian experiencing homelessness. The public appeal ran over 20 years, finally reaching the target in July 2018, with more than 3,500 people assisting nationwide. At the outset of the project, Devonport City Councillor, Steve Martin, approached Australian Prime Ministers to donate a jacket to Home Hill with a ‘substitute’ jacket being donated by Mr Martin to the Enormity project.
Unfortunately, Home Hill does not have a jacket belonging to former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. In an era when people owned fewer clothes than today, Dame Enid Lyons gave the suit that her deceased husband wore to Privy Council meetings to a woman with two small children. It was cut down and worn for ‘Sunday best’. While the family remembered the gift fondly, it did not survive, probably being handed down to another boy.
Image: Senator Anne Urquhart, Councilor Steve Martin, Ann Teesdale and Lynn Laycock with the most recent Prime Ministerial jacket from Anthony Albanese
