Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-08-07
AUSTRALIAN SLANG,
"MOb" Means a Lot of Cattle
Collected.
IDEAS AND MODES OF EXPRESSION.
Tea Is Drunk in Australia TO Even
Greater Excess than 1t Is in Eng-
land.

development of the West Australian
gold fields, an enormous amount of at.
tention is being devoted to Australian
affairs. 1t is only short time ago
that the Australian banking crisis drew
mems thoughts almost as effectively to
our great colony "down under" The
develoment of the timber trade, frozen
meat and butter export trades. and of
many other branches of Australasian
industry, all help to direct our minds
to the same portion of the globe. The
consequence is that every year and
every month more and more English
men go out to Australia to try and take
advantage of the flowing tide of for
tune, while of those who stay at home
an ever-increasing number interest
themselves pecuniarly i'll Australian
ventures, and become insensibly ao-
quainted in consequence with an en-
tirely novel group of ideas and modes
Of expression. AT first, says the Lon
don Standard, these new words and
phrases are very confusing to the Eng
lish mind. Many of them. indeed,
are literally taken from foreign Ian
guages. namely. those of the various
Australian aboriginal tribes, "black-
fellows" as they are called. Others
are old English slang. forgotten now
in this country, and Others new Eng
lish slang imported direct from Amer.
lea. There is some excuse. therefore,
for the temporary confusion of the
newly arrived stranger. or new
chum. when he first hears this odd
jargon mingled with the Queens Eng
lish: and as new ohums are now arriv-
ing in greater numbers every week, the
moment seems an opportune one for
explaining some of the elementary
forms of Australian slang.
There are certain words which even
Englishmen generally understand,
words which constantly recur. but
which, as it is unsafe to take anything
for granted, shall be explained and de-
fined at the outset. Such word is
"bush. This means uncleared
ground, and especially the enormous
areas covered with open forests of
eucalyptus, or "gum." as it is locally
termed. A "bushman" is not black
fellow in the sense in which the Dutch
used the word at the Cape. but means
a man accustomed to traverse the brush
and able to look after himself therein.
To be "bushed' is to be lost in the
brush, fate usually reserved for those
who are not bushmen, and very COM
monty ending in death. 1t may be
said that bush is a general word, in
cluding what the government statisti-
clan of New South Wales terms "open,
brush, and scrub forests. The
"brush" forests are found chiefly along
the coasts. and consist largely of fern
trees, palms. cabbage-trees, Moreton
Bay figs, and so forth. The scrub"
forests are mostly stunted pines. acacie.
and gum. Having disposed OF these
three important words. we may pass
on to say that 'squatter" is large
land owner, and his holding is called a
Station The squatocracy' cor
responds to our squirearchy. A station
far removed from centers of civiliza-
ton is called "black block; small
farmer is "cockatoo' or "stringy-
barker; a young man working on a
station for the sake of learning how to
farm is called 'jackeroo"; 'selec-
tor" is man who. under certain con-
ditions, is allowed to occupy small
portion of the squatter's holding and
farm it until he is bought out by the
squatter. Such selectors used formerly
10 be able to fix ON the most valuable
parts of the holding. They were then
said to have picked the eyes ont OF
it," and hence. from connection OF
this idea with a peacock's tail, to
have "peacocked" it. This is still
done in some parts of Australia.
Naturally holders of stations often have
their cattle stolen, especially by these
selectors.
Stealing stock from a station is
called "duffing. To prevent this il
is customary to brand stock. At GER
tain times. however, there are likely
to be great numbers of unbranded
young stock running wild. These are
called 'clear. skins. A crawler'
is sheep left behind on the road. Tc
"bail" cattle, as is we'll known, is tt
secure them by means of ball. hence
to "bail up" is to drivs into corner
and, more generally. to render help
less. The cry of ''Bail upi' signifies
Hold your arms above your head anC
keep them there till further orders, o.
I'll shoot you" The idea of the posi-
ton is that the person bailed up shal
be rendered helpless, aud not be able tt
reach his revolver. So much then fo
stations and stock; we may now pas
on to the station-hands. Not many, a
a rule. are permanently engaged on ON
place. A man of all work. especiall,
at shearing- time. is called "rouse
about" The ordinary Australian
laborer who travels from station t.