Pith Helmet...

...for something different is an emergency blip of a screen image. The little boy photo circa 1940 is my late older brother of two brothers. He appears to be clutching perhaps luggage labels, but they are likely for labelling scientific specimens or trials. Their subject could have been soil agronomy or plant pathology ...who knows as workers applied their hand to what they had to, but work tools of our father. I am confident the vehicle is a work utility and the location is South Johnstone in North Queensland where our father worked as a Field Officer for the South Johnstone Cane Pest Board.

The pith helmet until tonight I had never noticed in the photo and believe I remember it from years later, seeing it in our home. Tonight I find an entry in the Queensland Historical Atlas that these were "[w]orn by a range of people from officials to plantation owners and scientists".

Pith helmets were worn in the Queensland Railways according to the Atlas until the 1980s.

A wikipedia article describes the Pith helmet. There is more literally to it than meets the eye as its crown and brim offers an actual covering for the head of an insulating material, cork or pith from a plant called sola (Aeschynomene aspera) . Wikipedia suggests its a mix of the design of a German military helmet, the Pickelhaube and a wide brimmed version of a hat from the Philippines, the salacot.