1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4:
"The smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky beast, took the chance."
(2) The panic rush of sheep, cattle, or other animals at the sight or smell of water.
1891: "The Breakaway," title of picture by Tom Roberts at Victorian Artists' Exhibition.
1833. Lieut. Breton, R.N., `Excursions in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,' p. 293:
"It sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind to a `brickfielder,' on which occasions the thermometer has been known to fall, within half an hour, upwards of fifty degrees! That is to say, from above 100 degrees to 50 degrees! A brickfielder is a southerly wind, and it takes its local name from the circumstances of its blowing over, and bringing into town the flames [sic] of a large brick-field: it is nearly as detestable as a hot wind."
[Lieut. Breton must have had a strong imagination. The brickfields, at that date, were a mile away from the town, and the bringing in of their flames was an impossibility. Perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for fumes; yet even then this earliest quotation indicates part of the source of the subsequent confusion of meaning. The main characteristic of the true brickfielder was neither flames nor fumes,—and certainly not heat,—but choking dust.]
1839. W. H. Leigh, `Reconnoitering Voyages, Travels, and Adventures in the new Colony of South Australia,' etc., p. 184:
"Whirlwinds of sand come rushing upon the traveller, half blinding and choking him,—a miniature sirocco, and decidedly cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at Cape Town. The inhabitants call these miseries `Brickfielders,' but why they do so I am unable to divine; probably because they are in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are made."
[This writer makes no allusion to the temperature of the wind, whether hot or cold, but lays stress on its especial characteristic, the dust. His comparison with the sirocco chiefly suggests the clouds of sand brought by that wind from the Libyan Desert, with its accompanying thick haze and darkness (`half blinding and choking'), rather than its relaxing warmth.]
1844. John Rae, `Sydney Illustrated,' p. 26:
"The `brickfielder' is merely a colonial name for a violent gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes in to supply the vacuum and equalises the temperature of the atmosphere; and when its baneful progress is marked, sweeping over the city in thick clouds of brick-coloured dust (from the brickfields), it is time for the citizens to close the doors and windows of their dwellings, and for the sailor to take more than half his canvas in, and prepare for a storm."
[Here the characteristic is again dust from the brickfields, as the origin of the name, with cold as an accompaniment.]
1844. Mrs.Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' p. 44:
"These dust winds are locally named `brickfielders,' from the direction in which they come" [i.e. from neighbouring sandhills, called the brickfields].
[Here dust is the only characteristic observed, with the direction of the wind as the origin of its name.]
1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 4:
"The greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by colonists a brickfielder. This wind has all the characteristics of a sirocco in miniature . . . . Returning home, he discovers that the house is full of sand; that the brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of his books; at dinner he will probably find that his favourite fish has been spoiled by the brickfielder. Nor is this all; for on retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder has intruded even within the precincts of his musquito curtains."
[Here again its dust is noted as the distinguishing feature of the wind, just as sand is the distinguishing feature of the `sirocco' in the Libyan Desert, and precipitated sand,—`blood rain' or `red snow,'—a chief character of the sirocco after it reaches Italy.]
1847. Alex. Marjoribanks, `Travels in New South Wales,' p. 61:
"The hot winds which resemble the siroccos in Sicily are, however, a drawback . . . but they are almost invariably succeeded by what is there called a `brickfielder,' which is a strong southerly wind, which soon cools the air, and greatly reduces the temperature."
[Here the cold temperature of the brickfielder is described, but not its dust, and the writer compares the hot wind which precedes the brickfielder with the sirocco. He in fact thinks only of the heat of the sirocco, but the two preceding writers are thinking of its sand, its thick haze, its quality of blackness and its suffocating character,—all which applied accurately to the true brickfielder.]
1853. Rev. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and 1853,' p. 228:
"After the languor, the lassitude, and enervation which some persons experience during these hot blasts, comes the `Brickfielder,' or southerly burster."
[Cold temperature noticed, but not dust.]
1853. `Fraser's Magazine,' 48, p. 515:
"When the wind blows strongly from the southward, it is what the Sydney people call a `brickfielder'; that is, it carries with it dense clouds of red dust or sand, like brick dust, swept from the light soil which adjoins the town on that side, and so thick that the houses and streets are actually hidden; it is a darkness that may be felt."
[Here it is the dust, not the temperature, which determines the name.]
(2) The very opposite to the original meaning,—a severe hot wind. In this inverted sense the word is now used, but not frequently, in Melbourne and in Adelaide, and sometimes even in Sydney, as the following quotations show. It will be noted that one of them (1886) observes the original prime characteristic of the wind, its dust.
1861. T. McCombie,' Australian Sketches,' p. 79:
"She passed a gang of convicts, toiling in a broiling `brickfielder.'"
1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia with Notes by the Way,' p. 155:
"The `brickfielders' are usually followed, before the day closes, with `south-busters' [sic.]."
1886. F. Cowan, `Australia, a Charcoal Sketch':
"The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; and red-hot Simoom."
This curious inversion of meaning (the change from cold to hot) may be traced to several causes. It may arise—
(a) From the name itself. People in Melbourne and Adelaide, catching at the word brickfielder as a name for a dusty wind, and knowing nothing of the origin of the name, would readily adapt it to their own severe hot north winds, which raise clouds of dust all day, and are described accurately as being `like a blast from a furnace,' or `the breath of a brick-kiln.' Even a younger generation in Sydney, having received the word by colloquial tradition, losing its origin, and knowing nothing of the old brickfields, might apply the word to a hot blast in the same way.
(b) From the peculiar phenomenon.—A certain cyclonic change of temperature is a special feature of the Australian coastal districts. A raging hot wind from the interior desert (north wind in Melbourne and Adelaide, west wind in Sydney) will blow for two or three days, raising clouds of dust; it will be suddenly succeeded by a `Southerly Buster' from the ocean, the cloud of dust being greatest at the moment of change, and the thermometer falling sometimes forty or fifty degrees in a few minutes. The Sydney word brickfielder was assigned originally to the latter part—the dusty cold change. Later generations, losing the finer distinction, applied the word to the whole dusty phenomenon,and ultimately specialized it to denote not so much the extreme dustiness of its later period as the more disagreeable extreme heat of its earlier phase.
(c) From the apparent, though not real, confusion of terms, by those who have described it as a `sirocco.'—The word sirocco (spelt earlier schirocco, and in Spanish and other languages with the sh sound, not the s) is the Italian equivalent of the Arabic root sharaga, `it rose.' The name of the wind, sirocco, alludes in its original Arabic form to its rising, with its cloud of sand, in the desert high-lands of North Africa. True, it is defined by Skeat as `a hot wind,' but that is only a part of its definition. Its marked characteristic is that it is sand-laden, densely hazy and black, and therefore `choking,' like the brickfielder. The not unnatural assumption that writers by comparing a brickfielder with a sirocco, thereby imply that a brickfielder is a hot wind, is thus disposed of by this characteristic, and by the notes on the passages quoted. They were dwelling only on its choking dust, and its suffocating qualities,—`a miniature sirocco.' See the following quotations on this character of the sirocco:—
1841. `Penny Magazine,' Dec. 18, p. 494:
"The Islands of Italy, especially Sicily and Corfu, are frequently visited by a wind of a remarkable character, to which the name of sirocco, scirocco, or schirocco, has been applied. The thermometer rises to a great height, but the air is generally thick and heavy . . . . People confine themselves within doors; the windows and doors are shut close, to prevent as much as possible the external air from entering; . . . but a few hours of the tramontane, or north wind which generally succeeds it, soon braces them up again. [Compare this whole phenomenon with (b) above.] There are some peculiar circumstances attending the wind. . . . Dr. Benza, an Italian physician, states:—`When the sirocco has been impetuous and violent, and followed by a shower of rain, the rain has carried with it to the ground an almost impalpable red micaceous sand, which I have collected in large quantities more than once in Sicily. . . . When we direct our attention to the island of Corfu, situated some distance eastward of Sicily, we find the sirocco assuming a somewhat different character. . . . The more eastern sirocco might be called a refreshing breeze [sic]. . . . The genuine or black sirocco (as it is called) blows from a point between south-east and south-south-east.'"
1889. W. Ferrell, `Treatise on Winds,' p. 336:
"The dust raised from the Sahara and carried northward by the sirocco often falls over the countries north of the Mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture and the sand falling together. . . .The temperature never rises above 95 degrees."
1889. `The Century Dictionary,' s.v. Sirocco:
"(2) A hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing from the highlands of Africa to the coasts of Malta, Sicily and Naples. . . . During its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze."
(3) The illustrative quotations on brickfielder, up to this point, have been in chronological consecutive order. The final three quotations below show that while the original true definition and meaning, (1), are still not quite lost, yet authoritative writers find it necessary to combat the modern popular inversion, (2).
1863. Frank Fowler, `The Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1:
"The `brickfielder' is not the hot wind at all; it is but another name for the cold wind, or southerly buster, which follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive sweep of sandhills called the Brickfields, semi-circling Sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or `brickfielder') across the city."
[The writer is accusing Dr. Jobson (see quotation 1862, above) of plagiarism from his book `Southern Lights and Shadows.']
1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' vol. ii. p. 11:
"A dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere.This is generally known as a `brickfielder.'"
1896. `Three Essays on Australian Weather,' `On Southerly Buster,' by H. A. Hunt, p. 17:
"In the early days of Australian settlement, when the shores of Port Jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great part of the Haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from which Brickfield Hill takes its name. When a `Southerly Burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of `brickfielder.' The brickfields have long since vanished, and with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern name of `Southerly Burster."
"Wood brown, hard, heavy, and elastic; used by the natives for spears, boomerangs, and clubs. The wood splits freely, and is used for fancy turnery. Saplings used as stakes in vineyards have lasted twenty years or more. It is used for building purposes, and has a strong odour of violets.'
1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 312:
"Almost impassable bricklow scrub, so called from the bricklow (a species of acacia)."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 4:
"The Bricklow Acacia, which seems to be identical with the Rosewood Acacia of Moreton Bay; the latter, however, is a fine tree, 50 to 60 feet high, whereas the former is either a small tree or a shrub. I could not satisfactorily ascertain the origin of the word Bricklow, but as it is well understood and generally adopted by all the squatters between the Severn River and the Boyne, I shall make use of the name. Its long, slightly falcate leaves, being of a silvery green colour, give a peculiar character to the forest, where the tree abounds."—[Footnote]: "Brigaloe Gould."
1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 79:
"Good-bye to the Barwan and brigalow scrubs."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 190:
"Now they pass through a small patch of Brigalow scrub. Some one has split a piece from a trunk of a small tree. What a scent the dark-grained wood has!"
1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia;' vol. iv. p. 69:
"There exudes from the Brigalow a white gum, in outward appearance like gum-arabic, and even clearer, but as a `sticker' valueless, and as a `chew-gum' disappointing."
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 23:
"The glare of a hard and pitiless sky overhead, the infinite vista of saltbush, brigalow, stay-a-while, and mulga, the creeks only stretches of stone, and no shelter from the shadeless gums."
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 232:
"He (Mr. Caley) calls it in his notes `Bristle Bird.'"
1879. W. N. Blair, `Building Materials of Otago,' p. 155:
"There are few trees in the [Otago] bush so conspicuous or so well known as the broad-leaf. . . . It grows to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of from three to six; the bark is coarse and fibrous, and the leaves a beautiful deep green of great brilliancy."
1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xii. Art. 49, p. 328:
"The broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis) is abundant in the district [of Banks' Peninsula], and produces a hard red wood of a durable nature."
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 103:
"The rough trunks and limbs of the broadleaf."
1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014:
"We're nearly `dead brokers,' as they say out here. Let's harness up Eclipse and go over to old Yamnibar."
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 145:
"One of the gold-winged pigeons, of which a plate is annexed. [Under plate, Golden-winged Pigeon.] This bird is a curious and singular species remarkable for having most of the feathers of the wing marked with a brilliant spot of golden yellow, changing, in various reflections of light, to green and copper-bronze, and when the wing is closed, forming two bars of the same across it."
1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 31:
"The pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island; they are called bronze-winged pigeons."
1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 57:
"Mr. Fitzpatrick followed his kangaroo hounds, and shot his emus, his wild turkeys, and his bronze-wings."
1865. `Once a Week.' `The Bulla-Bulla Bunyip.'
"Hours ago the bronze-wing pigeons had taken their evening draught from the coffee-coloured water-hole beyond the butcher's paddock, and then flown back into the bush to roost on `honeysuckle' and in heather."
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122:
"Another most beautiful pigeon is the `bronze-wing,' which is nearly the size of the English wood-pigeon, and has a magnificent purply-bronze speculum on the wings."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 33:
"Both the bronze-wing and Wonga-Wonga pigeon are hunted so keenly that in a few years they will have become extinct in Victoria."
1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 6:
"Those who care for museum studies must have been interested in tracing the Australian quail and pigeon families to a point where they blend their separate identities in the partridge bronze-wing of the Central Australian plains. The eggs mark the converging lines just as clearly as the birds, for the partridge-pigeon lays an egg much more like that of a quail than a pigeon, and lays, quail fashion, on the ground."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 612:
"Native broom. Wood soft and spongy."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii, pl. 54:
"Acanthiza Diemenensis, Gould. Brown-tail, colonists of Van Diemen's Land."
1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White kangaroo,' p. 57:
"Cake made of flour, fat and sugar, commonly known as`Browny.'"
1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 57:
"Four o'clock. `Smoke O!' again with more bread and brownie (a bread sweetened with sugar and currants)."
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass,' p. 36:
"Roast mutton and brownie are given us to eat."
1880. `The Australasian,' Dec. 4, p. 712, col. 3:
"Passing through a belt of mulga, we saw, on reaching its edge, a mob of horses grazing on the plains beyond. These our guide pronounced to be `brumbies,' the bush name here [Queensland] for wild horses."
1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 176:
"The wild horses of this continent known all over it by theAustralian name of `brumbies.'"
Ibid. p. 178:
"The untamed and `unyardable' scrub brumby."
1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 160:
"Juggling about the country, with an Australian larrikin; a `brumby' with as much breed as the boy. . . . People who lost money on him called him a `brumby.'"
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms.' p. 67:
"The three-cornered weed he rode that had been a `brumbee.'"
1895. `Chambers' Journal,' Nov. 2, Heading `Australian Brumbie Horses':
"The brumbie horse of Australia, tho' not a distinct equine variety, possesses attributes and qualities peculiar to itself, and, like the wild cattle and wild buffaloes of Australia, is the descendant of runaways of imported stock."
1896. `Sydney Morning Herald,' (Letter from `J. F. G.,' dated Aug. 24):
"Amongst the blacks on the Lower Balonne, Nebine, Warrego, and Bulloo rivers the word used for horse is `baroombie,' the `a' being cut so short that the word sounds as `broombie,' and as far as my experience goes refers more to unbroken horses in distinction to quiet or broken ones (`yarraman')."
1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 156:
"Yet at times we long to gallop where the reckless bushman ridesIn the wake of startled brumbies that are flying for theirhides."
1820. Oxley, `New South Wales' (`O.E.D.'):
"The timber standing at wide intervals, without any brush or undergrowth."
1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' (2nd ed.) vol. i. p. 62:
"We journeyed . . . at one time over good plains, at another through brushes."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. Introd. p. 77:
"Jungle, or what in New South Wales would be called brush."
Ibid. vol. v. Pl. 59:
"Those vast primeval forests of New South Wales to which the colonists have applied the name of brushes."
1853. Chas. St. Julian and Edward K. Silvester, `The Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' p. 20:
"What the colonists term `brush' lands are those covered with tall trees growing so near each other and being so closely matted together by underwood, parasites, and creepers, as to be wholly impassable."
1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67, note:
"Brush was allotted to the growth of large timber on alluvial lands, with other trees intermixed, and tangled vines. The soil was rich, and `brushland' was well understood as a descriptive term. It may die away, but its meaning deserves to be pointed out."
1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. viii. p. 273:
"A place . . . thickly inhabited by the small brush-kangaroo."
1830. `Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,' i. 29:
"These dogs . . . are particularly useful in catching the bandicoots, the small brush kangaroo, and the opossum."
1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 28:
"The brush-kangaroo . . . frequents the scrubs and rocky hills."
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. iii. p. 24:
"Violet was so fast that she could catch the brush-kangaroo (the wallaby) within sight."
1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 193:
"Having gained his seat by a nimble spring, I have seen a man (a Sydney native) so much at his ease, that while the horse has been `bucking a hurricane,' to use a colonial expression, the rider has been cutting up his tobacco and filling his pipe, while several feet in the air, nothing to front of him excepting a small lock of the animal's mane (the head being between its legs), and very little behind him, the stern being down; the horse either giving a turn to the air, or going forward every buck."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 131:
"`Well,' said one, `that fellow went to market like a bird.' `Yes,' echoed another, `Bucked a blessed hurricane.' `Buck a town down,' cried a third. `Never seed a horse strip himself quicker,' cried a fourth."
1882. Baillie-Grohman, `Camps in the Rockies,' ch. iv. p. 102 ('Standard'):
"There are two ways, I understand, of sitting a bucking horse . . . one is `to follow the buck,' the other `to receive the buck.'"
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 55:
"The performance is quite peculiar to Australian horses, and no one who has not seen them at it would believe the rapid contortions of which they are capable. In bucking, a horse tucks his head right between his fore-legs, sometimes striking his jaw with his hind feet. The back meantime is arched like a boiled prawn's; and in this position the animal makes a series of tremendous bounds, sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways and backwards, keeping it up for several minutes at intervals of a few seconds."
1868. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 224:
"I never saw such bucks and jumps into the air as she [the mare] performed."
1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 206:
"For, mark me, he can sit a buckFor hours and hours together;And never horse has had the luckTo pitch him from the leather."
1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia in 1852 and 1853,' [Footnote] p. 143:
"A `bucker' is a vicious horse, to be found only in Australia."
1884. `Harper's Magazine,' July, No. 301, p. 1 (`O.E.D.'):
"If we should . . . select a `bucker,' the probabilities are that we will come to grief."
1893. Haddon Chambers, `Thumbnail Sketches of Australian Life,' p. 64:
"No buck jumper could shake him off."
1893. Ibid. p. 187:
"`Were you ever on a buck-jumper?' I was asked by a friend, shortly after my return from Australia."
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43:
"At length it shook off all its holders, and made one of those extraordinary vaults that they call buck-jumping."
1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 212:
"That same bucking is just what puzzles me utterly."
1859. Rev. J. D. Mereweather, `Diary of a Working Clergyman in Australia and Tasmania, kept during the years 1850-1853,' p. 177:
"I believe that an inveterate buckjumper can be cured by slinging up one of the four legs, and lunging him about severely in heavy ground on the three legs. The action they must needs make use of on such an occasion somewhat resembles the action of bucking; and after some severe trials of that sort, they take a dislike to the whole style of thing. An Irishman on the Murrumbidgee is very clever at this schooling. It is called here `turning a horse inside out.'"
1885. Forman (Dakota), item 26, May 6, 3 (`O.E.D.'):
"The majority of the horses there [in Australia] are vicious and given to the trick of buck jumping." [It may be worth while to add that this is not strictly accurate.]
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 94:
"`I should say that buck jumping was produced in this country by bad breaking,' said Mr. Neuchamp oracularly. `Don't you believe it, sir. Bucking is like other vices—runs in the blood.'"
1851. `The Australasian Quarterly,' p. 459:
"The plain under our feet was everywhere furrowed by Dead men's graves, and generally covered with the granulated lava, aptly named by the settlers buck-shot, and found throughout the country on these trappean `formations. Buck-shot is always imbedded in a sandy alluvium, sometimes several feet thick."
1877. Australie, `The Buddawong's Crown,' `Australian Poets,' 1788-1888, ed. Sladen, p. 39:
"A Buddawong seed-nut fell to earth,In a cool and mossy glade,And in spring it shot up its barbed green swords,Secure 'neath the myrtle's shade.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And the poor, poor palm has died indeed.But little the strangers care,`There are zamias in plenty more,' they say,But the crown is a beauty rare."
1793. J.Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 195:
"They very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would apply to us . . . for marks of our approbation . . . which we never failed to give by often repeating the word boojery, good; or boojery caribberie, a good dance."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 297:
"The betshiregah (Melopsittacus Undulatus, Gould) were very numerous."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. v. Pl. 44:
"Melopsittacus Undulatus. Warbling Grass-Parrakeet. Canary Parrot—colonists. Betcherrygah—natives of Liverpool Plains."
1857. Letter, Nov.17, in `Life of Fenton J. A. Hort' (1896), vol. i. p. 388:
"There is also a small green creature like a miniature cockatoo, called a Budgeragar, which was brought from Australia. He is quaint and now and then noisy, but not on the whole a demonstrative being."
1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. i. p. 48:
"Young paroquets, the green leeks, and the lovely speckled budgregores."
1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 7:
"I saw several pairs of those pretty grass or zebra parroquets, which are called here by the very inharmonious name of `budgereghars.'"
2890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 127:
"The tiny budgeriegar, sometimes called the shell parrot."
1834. Rev. W. B. Clarke, `Researches in the Southern Gold Fields of New South Wales' (second edition), p. 228:
"These moths have obtained their name from their occurrence on the `Bogongs' or granite mountains. They were described by my friend Dr. Bennett in his interesting work on `New South Wales,' 1832-4, as abundant on the Bogong Mountain, Tumut River. I found them equally abundant, and in full vigour, in December, coming in clouds from the granite peaks of the Muniong Range. The blacks throw them on the fire and eat them."
1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 355:
"The westward range is called the Bougongs. The blacks during summer are in the habit of coming thus far to collect and feed on the great grey moths (bougongs) which are found on the rocks."
1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660:
"The Gibbs Land and Murray districts have been divided into the following counties: . . . Bogong (native name of grubs and moths)."
1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 207
"The moths—the Bugong moths(Agrolis suffusa) are greedily devoured by the natives; and in former times, when they were in season, they assembled in great numbers to eat there, and they grew fat on this food." [Also a long footnote.]
1890. Richard Helms, `Records of the Australian Museum,' vol. i. No. 1:
"My aim was to obtain some `Boogongs,' the native name for the moths which so abundantly occur on this range, and no doubt have given it its name."
1896. `Sydney Mail,' April 4, Answers to Correspondents:
"It cannot be stated positively, but it is thought that the name of the moth `bogong' is taken from that of the mountain. The meaning of the word is not known, but probably it is an aboriginal word."
1845. `New Plymouth's National Song,' in Hursthouse's `New Zealand,' p. 217:
"And as for fruit, the place is fullOf that delicious bull-a-bull."
1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Long Years in Australia,' p. 93:
"Busy colonies of ants (which everywhere infest the country). . . One kind is very warlike—the `bull-dog': sentinels stand on the watch, outside the nest, and in case of attack disappear for a moment and return with a whole army of the red-headed monsters, and should they nip you, will give you a remembrance of their sting never to be forgotten."
1888. Alleged `Prize Poem,' Jubilee Exhibition:
"The aborigine is now nearly extinct,But the bull-dog-ant and the kangaroo ratAre a little too thick—I think."
1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 142:
"Where the wily free-selector walks in armour-plated pants,And defies the stings of scorpion and the bites of bull-dogants."
1857. D. Bunce, `Travels with Leichhardt in Australia,' p. 70:
"We afterwards learned that this was the work of the Bullen Bullen, or Lyre-bird, in its search for large worms, its favourite food."
1871. `The Athenaeum,' May 27, p. 660:
"The Gipps Land and Murray districts have been divided into the following counties: . . . Buln Buln (name of Lyre-bird)."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xii. p. 121:
"By George, Jack, you're a regular bullocky boy."
1872. C. N. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 49:
"The `bull-puncher,' as bullock-drivers are familiarly called."
1873. J. Mathew, song `Hawking,' in `Queenslander,' Oct. 4:
"The stockmen and the bushmen and the shepherds leave the station,And the hardy bullock-punchers throw aside their occupation."
1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 143:
"These teams would comprise from five to six pairs of bullocks each, and were driven by a man euphoniously termed a `bull-puncher.' Armed with a six-foot thong, fastened to a supple stick seven feet long. . . ."
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 48:
"It emits a loud and harsh grunting noise when it is caught. . . . The fisherman knows what he has got by the noise before he brings his fish to the surface. . . . When out of the water the noise of the bull-rout is loudest, and it spreads its gills and fins a little, so as to appear very formidable. . . . The blacks held it in great dread, and the name of bull-rout may possibly be a corruption of some native word."
1884. E. P. Ramsay, `Fisheries Exhibition Literature,' vol. v. p. 311:
"Another good table-fish is the `bull's-eye,' a beautiful salmon-red fish with small scales. . . . At times it enters the harbours in considerable numbers; but the supply is irregular."
(a) The aboriginal word.
1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 430:
"A place called Umpie Bung, or the dead houses."[It is now a suburb of Brisbane, Humpy-bong.]
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 175 [in Blacks' pigeon English]:
"Missis bail bong, ony cawbawn prighten. (Missis not dead, only dreadfully frightened.)"
1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 73:
"But just before you hands 'im [the horse] over and gets the money, he goes bong on you" (i.e. he dies).
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p: 142:
"Their [the blacks'] ordinary creed is very simple. `Directly me bung (die) me jump up white feller,' and this seems to be the height of their ambition."
1895. `The Age,' Dec. 21, p. 13, col. 6:
"`Then soon go bong, mummy,' said Ning, solemnly.
`Die,' corrected Clare. You mustn't talk blacks' language.'
`Suppose you go bong,' pursued Ning reflectively, `then you go to Heaven.'"
(b) The slang word.
1885. `Australian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 40:
"He was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had `gone bung,' probably from over-indulgence in confectionery."
1893. `The Argus,' April 15 (by Oriel), p. 13, col. 2:
"Still change is humanity's lot. It is but the space of a dayTill cold is the damask cheek, and silent the eloquent tongue,All flesh is grass, says the preacher, like grass it is witheredaway,And we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn'tis bung."
1893. Professor Gosman, `The Argus,' April 24, p. 7, col. 4:
"Banks might fail, but the treasures of thought could never go `bung.'"
1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), April 25, p. 2, col. 4:
"Perhaps Sydney may supply us with a useful example. One member of the mischief-making brotherhood wrote the words `gone bung' under a notice on the Government Savings Bank, and he was brought before the Police Court charged with damaging the bank's property to the extent of 3d. The offender offered the Bench his views on the bank, but the magistrates bluntly told him his conduct was disgraceful, and fined him L 3 with costs, or two months' imprisonment."
1843. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland, by J. D. Lang, p. 82:
"The bunya-bunya tree is noble and gigantic, and its umbrella-like head overtowers all the trees of the bush."
1844. Ibid. p. 89:
"The kernel of the Bunya fruit has a very fine aroma, and it is certainly delicious eating."
1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 25:
"The Bunya-Bunya or Araucaria on the seeds of which numerous tribes of blacks are accustomed to feed."
1879. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,' p. 58:
"A splendid timber tree of South Queensland, where it forms dense forests, one of the finest of the Araucaria tribe, attaining an approximate height of 200 feet. The Bunya-Bunya withstands drought better than most of the genus, and flourishes luxuriantly in and around Melbourne."
1887. J. Mathew, in Curr's `Australian Race,' vol. iii. p. 161:
[A full account.] "In laying up a store of bunyas, the blacks exhibited an unusual foresight. When the fruit was in season, they filled netted bags with the seeds, and buried them."
1889. Hill, quoted by J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 7:
"The cones shed their seeds, which are two to two and a half inches long by three-quarters of an inch broad; they are sweet before being perfectly ripe, and after that resemble roasted chestnuts in taste. They are plentiful once in three years, and when the ripening season arrives, which is generally in the month of January, the aborigina&ls assemble in large numbers from a great distance around, and feast upon them. Each tribe has its own particular set of trees, and of these each family has a certain number allotted, which are handed down from generation to generation with great exactness. The bunya is remarkable as being the only hereditary property which any of the aborigines are known to possess, and it is therefore protected by law. The food seems to have a fattening effect on the aborigines, and they eat large quantities of it after roasting it at the fire."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 377:
"The `Bunya-bunya' of the aboriginals—a name invariably adopted by the colonists."
1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 50:
"The Bunya-bunya tree, in the proper season, bears a fir cone of great size—six to nine inches long-and this, when roasted, yields a vegetable pulp, pleasant to eat and nutritious."
1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 19, p. 7, col. 1:
"There is a beautiful bunya-bunya in a garden just beyond, its foliage fresh varnished by the rain, and toning from a rich darkness to the very spring tint of tender green."
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 391:
"Certain large fossil bones, found in various parts of Australia Felix, have been referred by the natives, when consulted on the subject by the colonists, to a huge animal of extraordinary appearance, called in some districts the Bunyup, in others the Kianpraty, which they assert to be still alive. It is described as of amphibious character, inhabiting deep rivers, and permanent water-holes, having a round head, an elongated neck, with a body and tail resembling an ox. These reports have not been unattended to, and the bunyup is said to have been actually seen by many parties, colonists as well as aborigines. . . .[A skull which the natives said was that of a `piccinini Kianpraty' was found by Professor Owen to be that of a young calf. The Professor] considers it all but impossible that such a large animal as the bunyup of the natives can be now living in the country. [Mr. Westgarth suspects] it is only a tradition of the alligator or crocodile of the north."
1849. W. S. Macleay, `Tasmanian journal,' vol. iii. p. 275:
"On the skull now exhibited at the Colonial Museum of Sydney as that of the Bunyip."
1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 214:
"Did my reader ever hear of the Bunyip (fearful name to the aboriginal native!) a sort of `half-horse, half-alligator,' haunting the wide rushy swamps and lagoons of the interior?"
1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 258:
"The river is too deep, child, and the Bunyip lives in the water under the stones."
1865. `Once a Week,' Dec. 31, p. 45, The Bulla Bulla Bunyip':
"Beyond a doubt, in `Lushy Luke's' belief, a Bunyip had taken temporary lodgings outside the town. This bete noire of the Australian bush Luke asserted he had often seen in bygone times. He described it as being bigger than an elephant, in shape like a `poley' bullock, with eyes like live coals, and with tusks like a walrus's. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"What the Bunyip is, I cannot pretend to say, but I think it is highly probable that the stories told by both old bushmen and blackfellows, of some bush beast bigger and fiercer than any commonly known in Australia, are founded on fact. Fear and the love of the marvellous may have introduced a considerable element of exaggeration into these stories, but I cannot help suspecting that the myths have an historical basis."
1872. C. Gould, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' 1872, p. 33:
"The belief in the Bunyip was just as prevalent among the natives in parts hundreds of miles distant from any stream in which alligators occur. . . . Some other animal must be sought for." . . . [Gould then quotes from `The Mercury' of April 26, 1872, an extract from the `Wagga Advertiser']: "There really is a Bunyip or Waa-wee, actually existing not far from us . . . in the Midgeon Lagoon, sixteen miles north of Naraudera . . . I saw a creature coming through the water with tremendous rapidity . . . . The animal was about half as long again as an ordinary retriever dog, the hair all over its body was jet black and shining, its coat was very long." [Gould cites other instances, and concludes that the Bunyip is probably a seal.]
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 202:
"In the south-eastern part of Australia the evil spirit of the natives is called Bunjup, a monster which is believed to dwell in the lakes. It has of late been supposed that this is a mammal of considerable size that has not yet been discovered . . . is described as a monster with countless eyes and ears. . . . He has sharp claws, and can run so fast that it is difficult to escape him. He is cruel, and spares no one either young or old."
1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4:
"The hollow boom so often heard on the margin of reedy swamps —more hollow and louder by night than day—is the mythical bunyip, the actual bittern."
(2) In a secondary sense, a synonym for an impostor.
1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 214:
"One advantage arose from the aforesaid long-deferred discovery —a new and strong word was adopted into the Australian vocabulary: Bunyip became, and remains a Sydney synonoyme for impostor, pretender, humbug, and the like. The black fellows, however, unaware of the extinction, by superior authority, of their favourite loup-garou, still continue to cherish the fabulous bunyip in their shuddering imagination."
1853. W. C. Wentworth—Speech in August quoted by Sir Henry Parkes in `Fifty Years of Australian History' (1892), vol. i. p. 41:
"They had been twitted with attempting to create a mushroom, a Brummagem, a bunyip aristocracy; but I need scarcely observe that where argument fails ridicule is generally resorted to for aid."
1853. Mrs. Chas. Clancy, `Lady's Visit to Gold Diggings,' p. 112:
"The top, or surface soil, for which a spade or shovel is used, was of clay. This was succeeded by a strata almost as hard as iron—technically called `burnt-stuff'—which robbed the pick of its points nearly as soon as the blacksmith had steeled them at a charge of 2s. 6d. a point."
1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 189:
"There is a fish too at Rockhampton called the burra mundi,—I hope I spell the name rightly,—which is very commendable."
1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 357:
"Ceratodus. . . . Two species, C. forsteri and C. miolepis, are known from fresh-waters of Queensland. . . . Locally the settlers call it `flathead,' `Burnett or Dawson salmon,' and the aborigines `barramunda,' a name which they apply also to other largescaled fresh-water fishes, as the Osteoglossum leichhardtii. . . . The discovery of Ceratodus does not date farther back than the year 1870."