Austral English Part 10

"Axe-breaker. Wood hard, close-grained and firm. Its vernacular name emphasizes its hardness."

B

Baal, or Bail, interj. and adv.

"An aboriginal expression of disapproval." (Gilbert Parker, Glossary to `Round the Compa.s.s in Australia,' 1888.) It was the negative in the Sydney dialect.

1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 271, quoting from `The Atlas' (circa 1845):

"Traces, however, of the Egyptian language are discoverable among the present inhabitants, with whom, for instance, the word `Bale' or `Baal' is in continual use ... ." [Evidently a joke.]

Babbler, n. a bird-name. In Europe, "name given, on account of their harsh chattering note, to the long-legged thrushes." (`O.E.D.') The group "contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called the ornithological waste-basket." (`Century.') The species are--

The Babbler-- Pomatostomus temporalis, V. and H.

Chestnut-crowned B.-- P. ruficeps, Hart.

Red-breasted B.-- P. rubeculus, Gould.

White-browed B.-- P. superciliosus, V. and H.

Back-blocks, n. (1) The far interior of Australia, and away from settled country. Land in Australia is divided on the survey maps into blocks, a word confined, in England and the United States, to town lands.

(2) The parts of a station distant from the frontage (q.v.).

1872. Anon. `Glimpses of Life in Victoria,' p. 31:

"... we were doomed to see the whole of our river-frontage purchased... . The back blocks which were left to us were insufficient for the support of our flocks, and deficient in permanent water-supply... ."

1880. J. Mathew, Song--`The Bushman':

"Far, far on the plains of the arid back-blocks A warm-hearted bushman is tending his flocks.

There's little to cheer in that vast gra.s.sy sea: But oh! he finds pleasure in thinking of me.

How weary, how dreary the stillness must be!

But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me."

1890. E. W. Horning, `A Bride from the Bush,' p. 298:

"`Down in Vic' you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres to the sheep up here in the `backblocks.'"

1893. M. Gaunt, `English Ill.u.s.trated, `Feb., p. 294:

"The back-blocks are very effectual levellers."

1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' p. 33

"In the back-blocks of New South Wales he had known both hunger and thirst, and had suffered from sunstroke."

1893. `The Australasian,' Aug. 12, p. 302, col. 1:

"Although Kara is in the back-blocks of New South Wales, the clothes and boots my brother wears come from Bond Street."

Back-block, adj. from the interior.

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydneyside Saxon,' vol. xii. p. 215:

"`What a nice mare that is of yours!' said one of the back-block youngsters."

Back-blocker, n. a resident in the back-blocks.

1870. `The Argus,' March 22, p. 7, col. 2

"I am a bushman, a back blocker, to whom it happens about once in two years to visit Melbourne."

1892. E. W. Hornung, `Under Two Skies,' p. 21:

"As for Jim, he made himself very busy indeed, sitting on his heels over the fire in an att.i.tude peculiar to back-blockers."

Back-slanging, verbal n. In the back-blocks (q.v.) of Australia, where hotels are naturally scarce and inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality at the stations (q.v.) on his route, where he is always made welcome. There is no idea of anything underhand on the part of the traveller, yet the custom is called back-slanging.

Badger, n. This English name has been incorrectly applied in Australia, sometimes to the Bandicoot, sometimes to the Rock-Wallaby, and sometimes to the Wombat. In Tasmania, it is the usual bush-name for the last.

1829. `The Picture of Australia,' p. 173:

"The Parameles, to which the colonists sometimes give the name of badger... ."

1831. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 265:

"That delicious animal, the wombat (commonly known at that place [Macquarie Harbour] by the name of badger, hence the little island of that name in the map was so called, from the circ.u.mstance of numbers of that animal being at first found upon it)."

1850. James Bennett Clutterbuck, M.D., `Port Phillip in 1849,'

p. 37:

"The rock Wallaby, or Badger, also belongs to the family of the Kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown."

1875. Rev. J. G. Wood, `Natural History,' vol. i. p. 481:

"The Wombat or Australian Badger as it is popularly called by the colonists... ."

1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 8:

"With the exception of wombats or `badgers,' and an occasional kangaroo ... the intruder had to rely on the stores he carried with him."

ibid. p. 44:

"Badgers also abound, or did until thinned out by hungry prospectors."

Badger-box, n. slang name for a roughly- constructed dwelling.