Austral English Part 25

"The basalt or `bluestone,' which is well adapted to structural purposes, and generally obtains where durability is desired."

1883. J. Hector, `Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 62:

"Basalts, locally called `bluestones,' occur of a quality useful for road-metal, house-blocks, and ordinary rubble masonry."

1890. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' p. xx.

[Letter from Mr. S. H. Wintle]:

"The newer basalts, which in Victoria have filled up so extensively Miocene and Pliocene valleys, and river channels, are chiefly vesicular Zeolitic dolerites and anaemesites, the former being well represented by the light-coloured Malmsbury `bluestone' so extensively employed in buildings in Melbourne."

Blue-tongued Lizard, n. name given to Tiliqua nigroluteus, Gray, a common Australian and Tasmanian lizard belonging to the family Scincidae.

The name is derived from its blue-coloured tongue, and on account of its sluggish habits it is also often called the Sleepy lizard.

1887. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Dec. 14, pl. 131:

"Not uncommon about Melbourne, where it is generally called the `Blue-tongued Lizard,' or `Sleepy Lizard.'"

Blue-wing, n. a sportsman's name (as in England) for the bird called the Shoveller (q.v.).

Bluey, n. (1) A blue blanket commonly used by swagmen in Australia. He wraps his bundle in it, and the whole is called a Swag (q.v.). To hump bluey means to go on the tramp, carrying a swag on the back.

(2) In the wet wildernesses of Western Tasmania a rough shirt or blouse is made of this material, and is worn over the coat like an English smock-frock. Sailors and fishermen in England call it a "Baltic shirt."

1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 13, col. 2:

"We shall have to hump bluey again."

1891. R. Wallace, `Rural Economy and Agriculture of Australia and New Zealand,' p. 73:

"`Humping bluey' is for a workman to walk in search of work."

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

"Leehan presents an animated scene ... . Heavily laden drays, pack-horses and mules, form constant processions journeying from Dundas or Trial; miners with their swags, surveyors in their `blueys' ... all aid effectively in the panorama."

Board, n. term used by shearers. See quotation.

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1:

"`The board' is the technical name for the floor on which the sheep are shorn."

With a full board, with a full complement of shearers.

1894. `The Herald,' Oct. 6, p. 1. Col. 2:

"The secretary of the Pastoralists' Association ... reports that the following stations have started shearing with full boards."

Boar-fish, n. a name applied in England to various dissimilar fishes which have projecting snouts.

(`Century.') In New Zealand it is given to Cyttus australis, family Cyttidae, which is related to the John Dory (q.v.). This name is sometimes applied to it, and it is also called Bastard Dory (q.v.). In Melbourne the Boar-fish is Histiopterus recurvirostris, family Percidae, and Pentaceropsis recurvirostris, family Pentacerotidae.

Mrs. Meredith, in `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' 1880 (pl. vi.), figures Histiopterus recurvirostris with the vernacular name of Pig-faced Lady. It is a choice edible fish.

Boil down, v. to reduce a statement to its simplest form; a constant term amongst pressmen. Over the reporters' table in the old `Daily Telegraph' office (Melbourne) there was a big placard with the words-"Boil it down." The phrase is in use in England. `O.E.D.' quotes `Saturday Review,' 1880. The metaphor is from the numerous boiling-down establishments for rendering fat sheep into tallow. See quotation, 1878.

1878. F. P. Labilliere, `Early History of the Colony of Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 330:

"The first step which turned the tide of ill-fortune was the introduction of the system of boiling down sheep. When stock became almost worthless, it occurred to many people that, when a fleece of wool was worth from half-a-crown to three shillings in England, and a sheep's tallow three or four more, the value of the animal in Australia ought to exceed eighteenpence or two shillings. Accordingly thousands of sheep were annually boiled down after shearing ... until ... the gold discovery; and then `boiling down,' which had saved the country, had to be given up... . The Messrs. Learmonth at Buninyong ... found it answered their purpose to have a place of their own, instead of sending their fat stock, as was generally done, to a public `boiling down' establishment."

1895. `The Argus,' Aug. 17, p. 8, col. 2:

"Boiled down, the matter comes to this."

Bonduc Nuts, n. a name in Australia for the fruit of the widely distributed plant Caesalpina bonducella, Flem., N.O. Leguminosae. Called Molucca Beans in Scotland and Nicker Nuts elsewhere.

Bonito, n. Sir Frederick McCoy says that the Tunny, the same fish as the European species Thynnus thynnus, family Scombridae, or Mackerels, is called Bonito, erroneously, by the colonists and fishermen. The true Bonito is Thynnus pelamys, Linn., though the name is also applied to various other fishes in Europe, the United States, and the West Indies.

Bony-Bream, i.q. Sardine (q.v.).

Boobook, n. an owl. Ninox boobook (see Owl); Athene boobook (Gould's `Birds of Australia,' vol.i. pl. 32)." From cry or note of bird. In the Mukthang language of Central Gippsland, BawBaw, the mountain in Gippsland, is this word as heard by the English ear."

(A. W. Howitt.) In South Australia the word is used for a mopoke.

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 188:

"The native name of this bird, as Mr. Caley informs us, is Buck'buck. It may be heard nearly every night during winter, uttering a cry, corresponding with that word... .The lower order of the settlers in New South Wales are led away by the idea that everything is the reverse in that country to what it is in England : and the cuckoo, as they call this bird, singing by night, is one of the instances which they point out."

1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4:

"In most cases--it may not be in all--the familiar call, which is supposed to sound like `More-pork,' is not the mopoke (or podargus) at all, but the hooting of a little rusty red feather-legged owl, known as the Boobook. Its double note is the opposite of the curlew, since the first syllable is dwelt upon and the second sharp. An Englishman hearing it for the first time, and not being told that the bird was a `more-pork,'

would call it a night cuckoo."

Booby, n. English bird-name. Used in Australia for the Brown-Gannet. See Gannet.

Boobyalla, or Boobialla, n. the aboriginal name for the tree Acacia longifolia, Willd., N.O. Leguminosae, also called Native Willow. A river in Tasmania bears the name of Boobyalla, the tree being plentiful on the coast.

1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p63:

"Acacia sophora. Sophora podded Acacia or Booby-aloe.

This species forms a large shrub on the sand-hills of the coast."

1843. J. Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies,' p. 59:

"The sandbanks at the mouth of Macquarie Harbour are covered with Boobialla, a species of Acacia, the roots of which run far in the sand."

1855. J. Milligan, `Vocabulary of Dialects of the Aboriginal Tribes of Tasmania,' `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' vol. iii. p. 238:

"Wattle tree--seaside. (Acacia Maritinia) Boobyallah."

1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' vol. ii. p. 62: