Hold on to your hats! This could be South Australia’s next big tourist attraction

Hold on to your hats! This could be South Australia’s next big tourist attraction
By laurencroft


If you didn’t have a reason to head down to South Australia now, you’ll have one soon!

Well, sorta. Whilst other giant statues in the country (RIP Big Orange) struggle to be maintained, South Australia is heading in the opposite direction – and is building a new “big thing”!

The next big thing in question is a giant slouch hat in front of an Adelaide RSL. Yes, really.

Set to measure 16 metres long, six metres wide and nine metres high, the slouch hat will double as a shelter at the Gilles Plains and Hampstead RSL. Other uses for the hat include novelty photos (of you with a giant hat on) and other landmark-y stuff.

To pay for the hat, the RSL was given $140,000 through the former State Government’s $40 million Fund My Neighbourhood program – and hopes to have the giant hat up by December. Everyone needs a hat for summer, right?

According to the ABC, the big slouch hat was the idea of a councillor for Port Adelaide Enfield Council – whose father worked on the first “big thing” in Australia, the giant Scotsman in north Adelaide.

RSL secretary Pat Sobles told the ABC that the RSL was always keen to get funding for a shelter, and that the giant hat would be used when the club had outdoor events on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

“We didn’t realise how much it would actually cost,” she said.

“The main concern is we want it to look authentic.”

The Australian Army slouch hat will be complete with a Rising Sun badge on the front and will serve as a “nationally recognisable memorial to our present and past service people.”

“I’d like to build an anchor to the left hand side and a propeller on the right-hand side to represent the whole of the services,” Sobles added.

A model is currently being made by a contractor before the RSL signs off on the final design.

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