Austral English Part 284

Wattle-and-Dab, a rough mode of architecture, very common in Australia at an early date. The phrase and its meaning are Old English. It was originally Wattle-and-daub. The style, but not the word, is described in the quotation from Governor Phillip, 1789.

1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage to Botany Bay,' p. 124:

"The huts of the convicts were still more slight, being composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs, and plaistered up with clay."

1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 66:

"Wattle and daub... . You then bring home from the bush as many sods of the black or green wattle (acacia decurrens or affinis) as you think will suffice.

These are platted or intertwined with the upright posts in the manner of hurdles, and afterwards daubed with mortar made of sand or loam, and clay mixed up with a due proportion of the strong wiry grass of the bush chopped into convenient lengths and well beaten up with it, as a substitute for hair."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 201:

"The hut of the labourer was usually formed of plaited twigs or young branches plastered over with mud, and known by the summary definition of `wattle and dab.'"

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 179:

"Wattles, so named originally, I conceive, from several of the genus being much used for `wattling' fences or huts. A `wattle and dab' but is formed, in a somewhat Robinson Crusoe style, of stout stakes driven well into the ground, and thickly interlaced with the tough, lithe wattle-branches, so as to make a strong basket-work, which is then dabbed and plastered over on both sides with tenacious clay mortar, and finally thatched."

1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 21:

"It was built of what is known as `wattle and dab,' or poles and mud, and roofed with the bark of the gum-tree."

1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting,' p. 5:

"Others were of weather boards, wattle and dab, or slabs."

Wattle-bark, n. the bark of the wattle; much used in tanning, and forms a staple export.

1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), Aug. 14, p. 178 col. 2:

"A proprietor of land at Mount Gambier has refused L4000 for the wattle-bark on his estate."

1877. [? Exact date lost.] `Melbourne Punch':

"What'll bark? Why, a dog'll."

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 140:

"The bark of this species is used in tanning light skins, but the bark is considered weak in tannin, and only worth thirty shillings per ton in Queensland. Called `Black-wattle bark.'"

1893. `Melbourne Stock and Station Journal,' May 10 [advt.]:

"Bark.--There is a moderate inquiry for good descriptions, but faulty are almost unsaleable:--Bundled Black Wattle, superior, L5 to L6 per ton; do. do., average, L3 to L4 10s. per ton; chopped Black Wattle, L5 to L6 5s. per ton; ground, approved brands, up to L8 per ton; do., average, L5 to L6 per ton."

1896. `The Leader,' a weekly column:

"Kennel Gossip. By Wattle Bark."

Wattled Bee-eater. See Bee-eater.

Wattle-bird, n. an Australian bird, so called from the wattles or fleshy appendages hanging to his ear. In the Yellow species they are an inch long. The species are--

Brush Wattle-bird-- Anelobia mellivora, Lath.

Little W.-- A. lunulata, Gould.

Red W.-- Acanthochaera carunculata, Lath.

Yellow W.-- A. inauris, Gould.

The earlier scientific names occur in the quotation, 1848.

In New Zealand, the Kokako (q.v.) is also called a Wattle-bird, and the name used to be applied to the Tui (q.v.).

1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,'

p. 152:

"The wattle-bird, which is about the size of a snipe, and considered a very great delicacy."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv.:

"Anthochaera inauris, Wattled Honey-eater; Wattled Bird of the Colonists of Van Diemen's Land" (pl. 54).

"A. Carunculata, Wattled Bird of the Colonists; the Merops Carunculatus of older writers "(pl. 55).

"A. Mellivora, Vig. and Horsf., Bush Wattle Bird"

(pl. 56). "A. Lunulata, Gould, Little Wattle Bird, Colonists of Swan River" (pl. 57).

1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 11:

"Kangaroo-steaks frying on the fire, with a piece of cold beef, and a wattle-bird pie also ready on the board."

1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 62:

"The notes peculiar to the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, or platypus, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier bird, added in no small degree to the novelties... . The wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop-where-you-are.'"

1864. E. F. Hughes, `Portland Bay,' p. 9:

"Tedious whistle of the Wattle-bird."

186. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 111:

"This bird they called the Wattle-bird, and also the Poy-bird, from its having little tufts of curled hair under its throat, which they called poies, from the Otaheitan word for ear-rings.

The sweetness of this bird's note they described as extraordinary, and that its flesh was delicious, but that it was a shame to kill it."

1885. J. Hood, `Land of Fern,' p. 36:

"The wattle-bird, with joyous scream Bathes her soft plumage in the cooling stream."

1871. T. Bracken, `Behind the Tomb,' p. 79: