Austrian milliner Waltraud Reiner's flamboyant fedoras and fascinators were once destined for fashion's grandest stages.

But the Melbourne-based designer has traded her high-fashion clients in Paris and Milan for a life travelling the Australian outback teaching others the benefits of creative expression.

Milliner Waltraud Reiner says many of the hats made in the workshops would not be out of place on a catwalk in Paris or London. ( Supplied: Waltraud Reiner )

Ms Reiner runs hat making and weaving workshops in isolated rural Australian towns to provide a platform for people to connect and share.

She said this often gave people the chance to let out some hurt or trauma they had been holding on to for a long time.

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"We all deal with something, may it be cancer, or death, or the loss of a child, it might be alcoholism … and several of those I have experienced myself," Ms Reiner said.

"In these workshops it allows, sometimes, for those little convocations to come forth — just to speak about it."

Many remote towns rely on fly-in doctors and specialists for their medical needs.

And while Ms Reiner said these were critical services, the isolated nature of the communities provided additional challenges for ongoing support.

"They come in once a month, they stay for a few days and everyone knows who is booked in," she said.

"For some people this is very, very confronting.

"Workshops that have follow-ups and that are meaningful, well, there's not many of them because of the distances and the time it takes."

Waltraud Reiner travels around outback Australia in The Hatmobile. ( Supplied: Waltraud Reiner )

Ms Reiner travels in a big red truck she calls The Hatmobile.

It is where she stores all the materials needed for the workshops, but it is also part of her strategy for spending more time with the people she meets.

"If someone after a workshop feels as if we are falling into a conversation, it means I don't have to rush off," Ms Reiner said.

Carol Clarke attended a workshop last week when The Hatmobile visited Walgett, in north-west NSW.

The region has struggled through severe drought for years, and last month the town's only supermarket burnt to the ground.

Participants were asked to bring material from home to add to their artworks.

Milliner Waltraud Reiner helps Walgett's Carol Clarke create a wall-hanging on the loom. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

"What I collected was a pillowslip, it was the pillowslip that my husband last slept on — and today I weaved that into a wall hanging," Ms Clarke said.

"My husband passed away in 2015 — he suicided — so this morning I just sat and cut up the pillowcase, sometimes I ripped up the pillow case — I shed a few tears."

She said the workshop gave her a rare chance to let go.

"I normally suppress these sorts of emotions but today I let a little bit of it out," Ms Clarke said.

"Sometimes, it's good to just let go, and creatively, I weaved that pillowcase that he last slept on into something beautiful … some things made me feel good and some things made me feel angry. It was good to do that."

For Ms Reiner, these breakthroughs were what it was all about.

"A hat, a weaving, it's not going to bring your loved ones back, it's not going to stop depression overnight, but it certainly gives you a way of expressing something that sometimes is like a pressure cooker inside of us," she said.

Janelle Sullivan attends one of Waltraud Reiner's workshops in Walgett. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

The workshops offered other benefits too.

Ms Reiner said it was amazing to see the transformation in self-confidence when people could see what they were capable of.

"The work is high class — they're not just stuck on feathers with a hot-glue gun; they're making beautiful pieces," Ms Reiner said.

"What they finish with … you would think that it is catwalk stuff from Paris or London.

"As a matter of fact, I like to think sometimes it's even better — because they have great ideas."

People living in regional Australia were used to dealing with adversity, Ms Reiner said.

But she said they were also less able to access services to help deal with that adversity.

Austrian milliner Waltraud Reiner is bringing high fashion to remote outback Australia through a series of hat making workshops. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

"Country people are incredibly resilient, which I see less in the city these days," Ms Reiner said.

"I know art works. It has saved my life. I know that creativity is helpful in emotional and mental wellbeing.

"And I don't really give great thought to the why anymore — it just does."