Austral English Part 118

Humpy (Oompi) ... Queensland.

Mia-mia ... Victoria and Western Australia.

Wurley (Oorla) ... South Australia.

Whare ... New Zealand.

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 228:

"A `gunyia' or `umpee.'"

1873. J. Brunton Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 16:

"Lo, by the `humpy' door, a smockless Venus."

(2) Applied to a settler's house, very small and primitive.

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 133:

"To dwell in the familiar old bark `humpy,' so full of happy memories. The roof was covered with sheets of bark held down by large wooden riders pegged in the form of a square to one another."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 57:

"A lonely hut ... and a kitchen--a smaller humpey--at the back."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 247:

"He's to bed in the humpy."

1893. Gilbert Parker, `Pierre and his People,' p. 135:

"Shon McGann was lying on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut,--an Australian would call it a humpey."

Hungry Quartz, n. a miner's term for unpromising Quartz (q.v.)

Huon-Pine, n. a large Tasmanian evergreen tree, Dacrydium franklinii, Hook, N.O. Coniferae. The timber is prized in cabinet-work, being repellent to insects, durable, and fairly easy to work; certain pieces are beautifully marked, and resemble bird's-eye maple. The Huon is a river in the south of Tasmania, called after a French officer. See Pine.

1800. J. J. Labillardiere, `Voyage a la Recherche de la Perouse,' tom. i., Introd. p. xi:

"Ces deux flutes recurent des noms a.n.a.logues au but de l'entreprise. Celle que montoit le general, Dentrecasteaux, fut nommee la Recherche, et l'autre, commandee par le major de vaisseau, Huon Kermadec, recut le nom de l'Esperance... .

Bruny Dentrecasteaux [fut le] commandant de l'expedition, [et]

Labillardiere [fut le] naturaliste."

[Of these gentlemen of France and their voyage the names Bruni Island, D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Recherche Bay, Port Esperance, Kermandie [sic] River, Huon Island, Huon River, perpetuate the memory in Southern Tasmania, and the Kermadec Islands in the Southern Ocean.]

1820. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and Descriptive Delineations of the Island of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 28:

"On the banks of these newly discovered rivers, and the harbour, grows the Huon Pine (so called from the river of that name, where it was first found)."

1829. `The Tasmanian Almanack,' p. 87:

"1816. Huon pine and coal discovered at Port Davey and Macquarie Harbour."

1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' Vol. ii. p. 23:

"Huon-pine is by far the most beautiful wood found in the island."

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' (edition 1855) p. 515:

"Knots of the beautiful Huon pine, finer than bird's-eye maple for ornamental furniture."

1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 71:

"The river was named the Huon, and has since become celebrated for the production which yields the pretty cabinet-wood known as Huon pine."

1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xii. p. 102:

"The huon-pine is of immense height and girth."

Hut, n. the cottage of a shepherd or a miner.

The word is English but is especially common in Australia, and does not there connote squalor or meanness. The "Men's Hut" on a station is the building occupied by the male employees.

1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 11, pt. 1, c. 3:

"At the head station are a three-roomed hut, large kitchen, wool-shed, etc."

1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania,' p. 21:

"If a slab or log hut was required to be erected ... a cart-load of wool was pitchforked from the wasting heap, wherewith to caulk the crevices of the rough-hewn timber walls."

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. vi. p. 42:

"`The hut,' a substantial and commodious structure, arose in all its grandeur."

1890. Id. `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 62:

"Entering such a hut, as it is uniformly, but in no sense of contempt, termed--a hut being simply lower in the scale than a cottage--you will find there nothing to shock the eye or displease the taste."

1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 29:

"Bark and weatherboard huts alternating with imposing hotels and stores."

Hut-keep, v. to act as hut-keeper.

1865. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 380