Dunkerley Benjamin

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BENJAMIN DUNKERLEY

Notes on the Dunkerley family and “Akubra” supplied by Stephen Keir

Benjamin Dunkerley was born 1840 in Cheshire England. He became a hatter and developed such skill with hat making machinery that he visited Germany from time to time to help manufacturers there set up operations.

In 1874 Benjamin left England for Tasmania to check out the hatting prospects. Satisfied that he could make a go of it independently, he asked his wife Harriet to join him the following year with the children. The family lived in Hobart where another four children were born to them. It was here that Benjamin later devised a piece of machinery that would cut the hair tip from the rabbit fur used in hat making. Before then the job had been done tediously by hand. The family was living at this time at a property called St. Helena which is now part of the Wrest Point Hotel complex.

Benjamin went back to England to patent his invention. It should have made him, if not a fortune, at least a reasonably sound amount of money. But Benjamin Dunkerley came out of the venture badly, losing a considerable amount of money. He was a clever inventor, a good hat manufacturer but not a businessman.

In the late 1880’s Dunkerley moved his fur cutting and machinery business from Tasmania to Sydney and set up a small hat factory in Crown Street, Surrey Hills. He continued to supply rabbit fur and machinery to hatters throughout Australia.

Soon to join him in business was a young Englishman, Stephen Keir. He was born in Lancashire in 1879 and arrived in Sydney in 1902. Stephen Keir married Benjamin Dunkerley’s daughter Harriet in 1905 at the Paddington Methodist Church. Benjamin was so impressed with his son in law that soon after his marriage to Ada, he made him general manager of the Hatting Company.

The factory received a business boost in World War 1 when it was obliged to supply diggers’ hats. Apart from sales to the Department of Defence the hats were sold through a York Street warehouse run by Mr. A.P. Stewart. He had put an amount of capital into the business and the name Akubra was in vogue after that.

Benjamin Dunkerley died in 1918 knowing he was leaving the Company in the capable hands of his son in law.

Whilst living in Hobart two of the sons were to marry two of the daughters of William Henry Hallam and Eliza Rosetta Wheatley who at the time were living at Glenorchy

Joseph Dunkerley born 1863 Stockport England married Edith Emmaline Dunkerley 13^th June 1895 in the house of William Hallam, Glenorchy and

James Arthur Dunkerley born Stockport England married Mabel Maria Hallam on 22^nd Jan 1902 in the Wesleyan Church, Glenorchy.

Both families later moved to Sydney.

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