One for the Road (30 page)

Baygon:
the brand name of a strong insect repellent.

bitumen:
road surface, tar.

bonnet:
the hood of a car.

boot:
the trunk of a car.

bottle shop:
a liquor store.

bowser:
a pump.

bush balladeers:
a group of poets who wrote about rural Australia.

bush tucker:
berries, roots, and other foods gathered in the outback.

bustard:
a turkey.

chuck a sickie:
take a sick day.

cockie:
slang phrase for “farmer.”

corroboree:
celebratory gathering of Aborigines.

cot:
a colloquialism for “bed.”

crook:
sick, spoiled, broken.

dag end:
the grubby bit of wool around a sheep’s butt.
Daggy
is also used to describe an unfashionable person.

damper:
a cakelike bread, traditionally cooked in campfire ash.

Digger:
slang for “veteran,” or, sometimes, simply an Australian.

dingo:
a wild dog.

Do the Right Thing:
advertising phrase used to discourage littering.

dole:
welfare.
Dole-bludgers
are welfare cheats.

drover:
a person who herds and moves stock, feeding it along the way.

dunny:
slang for “outhouse” or “toilet.”

egg nishner:
rhyming slang for “air-conditioner.”

emu:
a flightless, ostrichlike bird.

fair dinkum:
genuine, “tru-blu” Australian.

fibro:
cheap housing material.

Fourex, or XXXX:
a beer brand common in Queensland.

’gins:
short for “Aborigines”; derogatory.

geek:
freak or hayseed.

goanna:
an Australian lizard.

Grace Brothers:
a chain of department stores.

greenies:
slang for “environmentalists.”

Holden:
a line of large Australian cars.

humpie:
a lean-to or shack in Aboriginal communities.

Kelly, Ned:
an antihero bankrobber of the nineteenth century, like Jesse James.

kip:
a nap.

Kombi Van:
a large recreational vehicle.

lolly:
candy.

Lucky Country:
a famous phrase, often used ironically, that refers to Australia’s plentiful minerals and other assets.

Maori:
the native people of New Zealand, Polynesian in appearance.

middy:
a small glass of beer.

muesli:
a breakfast cereal like granola.

mug:
a fool or sucker.

mulga:
a low shrub common in the outback.

new, old:
light and dark types of beer.

ocker:
an unsophisticated or redneck Australian; noun or adjective.

pad
(as in cattle pad): cowpie or manure.

piss:
slang for “beer” or “alcohol.”
Pissed as a newt
means to be very drunk.

plonk:
alcohol, usually cheap stuff.

pokies:
slot machines.

quid:
slang for “dollar” or “money.”

ratbag:
a ranter, dogmatist, proponent of unpopular causes.

road train:
a long-distance truck, often with three trailers.

RSL:
Returned Services League, a veterans organization.

sandpit:
a sandbox.
Sandshoes
are sneakers.

schooner:
a large glass of beer.

scrum:
a huddlelike formation in rugby.

Sheep’s back:
a phrase denoting Australia’s traditional dependence on wool, as in “Australia is a country that rides on the sheep’s back.”

sheila:
a sexist word for a woman, like “bird” or “chick.”

she’ll be jake
, or
she’ll be right:
nothing to worry about. Stay cool.

shout, shouting:
buy a round, usually beer, as in “It’s my shout.” Traditionally, if several people go to a pub together, each shouts a round.

singlet:
a sleeveless T-shirt.

slog:
a strenuous activity or walk, i.e., “a hard slog.”

spinifex:
spiky grass common in the outback.

station:
a large grazing property or farm.

stinker:
an extremely hot day.

stubbies:
small bottles of beer; also, men’s shorts.

subeditor:
a copy editor.

swagman:
a tramp or itinerant laborer.
Swag
is a bedroll.

ta:
an abbreviation for “thank you.”

TAB:
the equivalent of off-track betting parlor.

Tasmanian tiger:
a doglike marsupial, believed to be extinct.

thongs:
flip-flops.

tinnie:
a can of beer.

Tobruk:
a grueling WWII battle in North Africa.

Tooth’s Old:
a brand of dark beer.

Top End:
the top of the Northern Territory, taking in Darwin.

troppo:
short for “tropical.” It usually refers to the lassitude of Australia’s hot north, or to going crazy or becoming lazy from the heat, as in “go troppo.”

tucker:
food.

two-up:
a gambling game in which two coins are flipped, popularized by WWI veterans. Now illegal, but widely played on Anzac Day.

ute:
short for “utility truck,” such as a pickup truck.

windscreen:
a windshield.

wirly-wirly:
small, tornadolike gusts of wind.

wogs:
immigrants, usually Italian; derogatory.

wombat:
large, low-slung marsupial, like a very fat, grounded koala.

wowser:
a teetotaler, sometimes aggressively so.

yakka:
work, as in “hard yakka.”

yarn:
a tale.

yonks:
a long time.

Books by Tony Horwitz