Some items carry more than just sentimental value — they hold stories, identity, and meaning that endure even when everything else is lost. For Jimmy Maher, one such item was his Akubra hat — left behind in the wreckage of a serious car accident in 2018, and thought to be gone forever.
What neither he nor Roz Dawson, the ambulance officer who found and looked after his beloved hat, could have predicted was that, seven years later, through the pages of a community book, that hat would find its way home.
Jimmy was travelling home along Great Northern Highway after a long week of work when his life changed in an instant. He was heading home from conducting a bushtucker session, accompanied by two orphaned joeys nestled beside him in the passenger seat. “I said to the joeys, ‘We can relax now, we’ve got nothing on for a couple of days now.’” said Jimmy.
“Next minute I did — relaxed and it was all over.”
Jimmy’s Mitsubishi Lancer left the highway, hit an embankment, rolled four times, and collided with a concrete culvert. Volunteer ambulance officer Roz Dawson was among the first on the scene. “We got a priority one call to a motor vehicle accident,” she recalls. “The rescue chopper had been dispatched as well.
“Jimmy was not in a great way, and as he came in and out of consciousness, I asked if there was anybody else in the car with him – I was concerned because there was blood on the passenger window.
“And when he said yes, my heart sunk – then he said there were two little joeys in pouches he had been caring for.
“Amazingly, they were located and were unharmed.”
The critical care paramedics arrived and acted quickly. “Once Jimmy was safe in the chopper, I spotted his Akubra hat in the vehicle. I just grabbed it and thought, ‘I’m going to hold onto this.’ I do always look out for personal belongings on a job, and especially for country folk out here, I know Akubras can have a sense of personal attachment.”
And this was certainly the case for Jimmy. As an Indigenous man, hats and their hatbands are deeply symbolic, representing leadership, spirituality, and cultural identity, particularly among elders. Hatbands, often adorned with intricate designs and materials, can carry significant meanings, reflecting lineage, purpose, and spiritual connections.
“If you’ve got a hat and you stick a hatband on it with your colours, that is your identity,” Jimmy explains. “It is the first thing that people see, and they know —- he is a senior man.
“And that one I’d had for a long time.”
The hat stayed with Roz for years, safely tucked away but not forgotten. Then, in early 2025, on a road trip, Roz was reading the local publication: Tales through Time: Seniors Reflect — a collection of personal life stories from Bullsbrook seniors, compiled by CLAN Midland, in which Jimmy features.
“I got to Jimmy’s story, and I let out this shriek in the car,” she laughs. “My husband jumped and asked what was wrong — I said, ‘I’ve found our man.’ I was nearly in tears. How many years had it taken? And through the power of this book, I was able to find him.”
Roz immediately got in touch with Jimmy to share the news and arrange a meeting when she returned home, returning the hat to Jimmy in early March. “We sat for nearly three hours chatting,” she laughs.
For Jimmy, the reunion brought more than just the return of a beloved item — For Jimmy, it brought closure and understanding. “I could actually learn a little bit more about myself at the time of the accident,” he said. “And it reinforced the fact that someone else, a stranger at the time, had held concerns for me.”
For Roz, it offered a rare and deeply meaningful resolution to a moment she’d carried with her for years. “We don’t always have the opportunity to reconnect with someone after a call out. You don’t always know if what you did made a difference. It was an emotional moment.
“I never gave up. I was determined to find the owner of this hat. And when I read his story, I just knew it was meant to be.”
