all yak and no yakka
All talk and no work or action.
Read the note on usage
The Slang MusterAustralian words and expressions
Work, bush and rural life
From stations and shearing sheds to worksites, trades and hard yakka.
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bandicoot
To remove potatoes from the ground, often surreptitiously, while leaving the plant tops apparently undisturbed.
Read the note on usageBarcoo
Outback term used in compounds for hardship, roughness and makeshift resourcefulness.
Barcoo salute
A wave of the hand across the face to brush away flies.
billy
A metal container used for boiling water, especially over a campfire.
bin chicken
An irreverent nickname for the Australian white ibis, especially an urban scavenging bird.
bitser
A mongrel or mixed-breed dog; originally also a makeshift object assembled from bits and pieces.
bluey
Several Australian senses, especially a red-haired person; historically also swag/blanket, summons and other uses.
Read the note on usageboomerang
An Australian throwing implement; also used figuratively for something that recoils on its originator.
Current; internationalisedbrickie
A bricklayer.
brumby
A wild or feral horse in Australia.
Read the note on usagebudgie
A budgerigar.
Read the note on usagebull dust
Fine powdery outback dust; figuratively, nonsense or false talk.
bushie
A person from, living in, or experienced in the bush.
Read the note on usagebushman's clock
A kookaburra, from its conspicuous dawn or morning call.
Read the note on usagebutchy boy
A regional or family nickname for a woodlouse.
checkout chick
An informal, now dated and gendered term for a supermarket checkout operator.
Dated and genderedchippy
A carpenter.
chook
A domestic fowl or chicken.
chuck a sickie
Take a day off work while claiming to be ill.
cleanskin
An unbranded animal; later, a person without a record or a wine bottle without a producer's label.
Current; sense-dependentcocky
A cockatoo; historically also a farmer in compounds such as cow cocky.
Read the note on usagecornstalk
A person born in New South Wales; historically also a native-born Australian in related uses.
Read the note on usagecrook as Rookwood
Very ill or in very poor condition.
Read the note on usagecurrency lad
An Australian-born man in the early colonial period.
Read the note on usagecurrency lass
An Australian-born woman in the early colonial period.
Read the note on usagedidgeridoo
A name used for the long wind instrument originating in Arnhem Land; the English word is probably imitative.
Current; culturally sensitive attributiondingo's breakfast
No breakfast at all; traditionally elaborated as a minimal morning routine and a look around.
dishy
A person employed to wash dishes.
ducks on the pond
A coded warning that women or outsiders are present, originally in male workplaces such as shearing sheds.
Read the note on usagedunny budgie
A blowfly.
Read the note on usagedunny diver
A plumber.
Read the note on usageemu bob
A bent-over search for small objects on the ground; by extension, to move along picking things up.
firie
A firefighter.
flat out like a lizard drinking
Extremely busy, working hard or moving at full speed.
flying cane toad
A disparaging nickname for the common/Indian myna bird.
Read the note on usagefossick
To search about, especially for gold, gemstones, discarded valuables or something worth finding.
galah session
A long, noisy or aimless conversation or chat.
garbo
A garbage collector.
get the DCM
Be dismissed from a job: 'don't come Monday'.
Read the note on usagegilgai
A clay-soil hollow or mound formed by cycles of wetting and drying.
Current specialist/regionalgladdy
A gladiolus.
Read the note on usagego bush
Go into the bush; withdraw from normal surroundings; sometimes become wild.
Read the note on usagegrey nomad
An older person travelling extensively, commonly by caravan or motorhome.
guernsey
A football jumper; in get a guernsey, to be selected or get a chance.
Read the note on usagehard graft
Hard work, especially sustained physical or practical labour.
hard yakka
Hard physical work.
Read the note on usageHughie
A notional weather-maker invoked in appeals for rain, especially send it down, Hughie.
Read the note on usagehump the bluey
Travel as a swagman, carrying one's swag while seeking work.
Read the note on usagejackaroo
A young man gaining practical experience on a sheep or cattle station.
Jacky Howe
A sleeveless singlet associated especially with shearers and rural workers.
jillaroo
A young woman gaining practical experience on a sheep or cattle station.
Read the note on usageJoe Blake
A snake.
Read the note on usagejumbuck
A sheep, especially in historical bush usage.
Historical and literary; rememberedkangaroo
The well-known Australian marsupial name borrowed from Guugu Yimithirr.
Currentknock out a living
To earn a living with difficulty; originating in literal goldfields work.
knock-off
The end of a work shift or working day; also to finish work.
Read the note on usagemaggie
A magpie.
Read the note on usagematilda
A swag or blanket-wrapped bundle carried by an itinerant bush worker.
milko
A milkman or milk-delivery worker.
muso
A musician.
muster
The gathering of livestock for counting, branding or other station work.
new chum
A newcomer, novice or newly arrived inexperienced immigrant/colonist.
Read the note on usageold chum
Historically, an experienced colonist or long-term resident, contrasted with a new chum.
Read the note on usageon the sheep's back
A phrase linking Australia's prosperity to the wool industry; often ride/live on the sheep's back.
Read the note on usageon the turps
Drinking alcohol heavily.
on the wallaby
Travelling about, especially on foot in search of work; shortened from on the wallaby track.
Read the note on usageput in the hard yards
Perform the sustained difficult work needed for a result.
put the billy on
Prepare tea by boiling water in a billy.
red centre
Central inland Australia, especially the arid country around Alice Springs/Uluru.
Read the note on usageringer
An expert, especially historically an expert shearer; other historical senses include cheat/coward.
Read the note on usageroll-up
A gathering or assembly; historically a miners' mass meeting.
saltie
A saltwater crocodile.
Read the note on usagesickie
A day of sick leave, sometimes taken without sufficient medical reason.
slater
A woodlouse.
smoko
A work break, originally a smoking break but now often any short break.
sparkie
An electrician.
squatter
Historically, a large pastoral landholder; earlier, one occupying Crown land without title.
sunbaker
A person lying in the sun; also the act.
Read the note on usagesundowner
An itinerant traveller who arrived at a station near sunset seeking food and shelter.
Read the note on usagetake a geek
Take a look.
Read the note on usagetop end
Northern Australia, especially the northern Northern Territory around Darwin/Kakadu.
Read the note on usagetradie
A tradesperson.
truckie
A truck driver.
uey
A U-turn.
underground mutton
Rabbit meat.
Read the note on usageverandah over the toy shop
A protruding belly or beer gut on a man.
Read the note on usagewaltz Matilda
To carry a swag and travel on foot looking for work.
we're not here to fuck spiders
We are here to act, not waste time.
Read the note on usagewedgie
A wedge-tailed eagle.
Read the note on usagewharfie
A wharf or dock worker.
within cooee
Within earshot, reach or a short distance.
Currentwouldn't work in an iron lung
Be extremely lazy.
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