In the bush all the heavy hauling is done with bullock-drays.
It is quite a common sight up the country to see teams of a dozen and upwards." (B. and L.)
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."
Priacanthus, says Guenther, is a percoid fish with short snout, lower jaw and chin prominent, and small rough scales all over them and the body generally. The eye large, and the colour red, pink, or silvery.
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."
This is a dry finely fibrous substance, easily disintegrated by rubbing between the hands. It forms a valuable tinder for kindling a fire in the bush, and is largely employed for that purpose. It is not unlike the matted hair of a bull, and is reddish in colour, hence perhaps this nickname, which is common in the Tasmanian bush.
This phrase of English school-boy slang, meaning to go off with an explosion, to go to smash (also according to Barrere and Leland still in use among American thieves), is in very frequent use in Australia. In Melbourne in the times that followed the collapse of the land-boom it was a common expression to say that Mr. So-and-so had "gone bung," sc. filed his schedule or made a composition with creditors; or that an institution had "gone bung," sc. closed its doors, collapsed.
In parts of Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland, the word "bung" is an aboriginal word meaning "dead," and even though the slang word be of English origin, its frequency of use in Australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal word, which forms the last syllable in Billabong (q.v.), and in the aboriginal word milbung blind, literally, eye-dead.
(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 day Till cold is the damask cheek, and silent the eloquent tongue, All flesh is grass, says the preacher, like grass it is withered away, 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."