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They have kept the rain and sun off the heads of generations of Australians but the makers of the country's distinctive Akubra bush hats have been hit by a dramatic shortfall in their product's main component - rabbit skins.

A virus introduced to control rabbit numbers seven years ago has been far too successful for Akubra's liking, with the company forced to import skins from rabbit farms in China and Europe.

According to the family-run firm, the imported pelts are far inferior to the fur of wild rabbits which produce a finer grade of felt.

Akubra produces 250,000 hats a year, many for the tourist and overseas market, but Australia's dwindling professional rabbit shooters cannot keep up with demand and the use of local skins has halved in the past two years.

Calicivirus was released into the wild in 1995 in an attempt to control the number of rabbits, which over decades have reached plague proportions.

At their peak there were an estimated 300 million wild rabbits in Australia, responsible for A$600 million (about HK$2.45 billion) in damage to crops and soil erosion a year.

Akubra company secretary Roy Wilkinson said: 'The virus has had a pretty big effect on local skins, which has really started to worry us.'

At Akubra's factory on the north coast of New South Wales, rabbit skins are stripped of their fur, which is then processed in large milling machines and made into felt.

The felt is moulded into a large cone and shrunk and shaped into hats.

Akubras are as distinctively Australian as koalas and kangaroos.

Designed to withstand the rigours of the Australian bush, they are worn by farmers, road gangs and anyone else who spends time under the Australian sun.

The firm was established by Englishman Benjamin Dunkerley who emigrated to Australia in the 1870s. Its name is derived from an aboriginal word meaning head covering.

The hats are popular overseas and are sold through distributors in nearly 20 countries including the United States, South Africa, Austria, Sweden, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

Prince Charles  has one, as does Bill Clinton. Ronald and Nancy Reagan have also been known to don Akubras.

The firm, which has been family-owned for four generations, also makes the distinctive slouch hat worn by Australian soldiers.

Whether customers will notice the subtle change in felt quality remains to be seen but the drop in rabbit numbers has spelt disaster for rabbit shooters such as Bob Clifford, from the town of Nyngan in western New South Wales.

Ten years ago he would deliver about 5,000 skins a week to Akubra but now he struggles to collect 600, venturing out at night with a spotlight and a .22-calibre rifle.

'We have plenty of orders for skins and meat but we can't get enough rabbits. The virus has really knocked them for six. Thirty years ago they were so thick on the ground you could flush them out of the bush and herd them into pens like sheep. There were countless thousands.'

Mr Clifford is one of the last of a dying breed. Forty years ago there were dozens of rabbit shooters across Australia as rabbits became a major pest.

Now he knows of just four hunters in New South Wales and the neighbouring state of Victoria.

'I've been chasing rabbits since I was five years old. It was never big money but we enjoyed the lifestyle, like everyone else who lives in the bush,' he said.

While the calicivirus has reduced rabbit numbers by up to 90 per cent in dry areas of Australia, it is less effective in wet regions.

Australian scientists are working on a new virus which, if successful, will devastate rabbit populations in all habitats.

Tony Robinson, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra, said: 'It's called myxoma and it is genetically engineered to make the female rabbits infertile. We hope it will greatly help reduce the number of rabbits.'

Which is good news for farmers and environmentalists but bad news for hat makers.



Science makes bunny of Aussie hat firm