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To be a real true blue aussie some of these phrases may help you out. hahahaha....
Thongs- NOT a Gstring - refers to the rubber things on your feet.
Backy
Tobacco
Bender
Drinking binge - totally blind drunk.
Buckley's chance
Very little possibility of obtaining what you want.
Chop chop
Tobacco Can also mean to hurry up or get a move on.
Cossie
Swimming or bathing costume
Daks
Trousers
Drop dead
Person is really disgusted with what you are saying and wants you to go away. This does not mean that the person actually wants you to die.
Fair Dinkum
The truth.
Flick
To permanently stop engaging in some activity.
For example "I don't like Justine any more so I gave her the flick."
Give it a burl
Give it a try.
Little Vegemites
Children
Ocker
Australian uncouth chauvinistic males, but can also apply to uncouth females.
Off (one's) trolley
Mad, irrational, completely over the top.
On the blink
Not working
Out of wack
Not working as it should. Something wrong.
Rack off
Go away - get lost - stop annoying me.
Skite
A person who brags constantly about themself and how good they are and how much money they have etc. Don't do this most Aussies hate it.
Sprung
Caught doing something that you shouldn't be doing. Like raiding a bank. Or a child caught taking some lollies when they have been told not to take any.
The Big Smoke
Mostly used by country people when referring to the capital cities of Australia. In Victoria for instance Melbourne would be considered to be the big smoke.
The sticks
Out in the country
Top end
Far north area of Australia. The inhabitants there call it "God's Country". Trouble and strife
The wife
Village bike
Promiscuous woman.
Walking papers
Dismissal from work - the sack.
Well turned out
Well dressed Leave a Comment
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Visiting Australia?
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Emergencies can occur for many reasons, usually unexpectedly. In Australia, emergency assistance is reached by dialling 000 on any telephone. This will put you through to an emergency call centre.
If you are using a mobile phone, you can dial 112 and, if any signal can be received from any mobile network (ie not necessarily from your provider), your call will be directed to the emergency call centre. Note, however, that although the telephone companies proudly say they provide coverage for something like 95% of the population, once you leave the main roads and coastal areas, much of Australia is out of reach of mobile phone services.
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Humour and Hospitality.
The Outback will toughen the individual person - man or woman alike. This "Top End" ("northern" Northern Territory) truck driver had a definate sense of humour. As you can see he runs a road painting business, for redrawing the lines. On the back of his truck were two large paint containers which he has hand painted to appear as giant tinnies (beer cans) of a particular leading Melbourne based brewer. People take a beer seriously out here.
As well as the sense of humor the hospitality is strong in the Outback. When I broke my bicycle carry rack out of Barrow Creek I had to hitch, bike and all, to Tennant Creek. I was surprised that a lone women driver with her identical twin child boys stoped to pick me up and took me to where I needed to get to. Not far up the road we ran out of gas, it wasn't long before a couple of passing motorists stopped for our assistance. We were on the road again in no time and even made a short visit to the Devils Marbles. I had to return my favour without much fuss so bought my driver a coffee and soft drinks for the twins. Leave a Comment
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Outback Characters.
While bicycling the Australian Outback I was constantly meeting the numerous locals or people who have made this part of the world their new home. Its a hardy or eclectic type of person who will make the choice between the Outback as their home from the city. It can be a lonely place out their in the Outback for some, but for many it is a place that recharges the individual's soul and shapes the character in all.
The man pictured here is one such person who had made the Outback his home. His Dingo-cross dog was as much a character as he was, it was a warm and welcome feeling to meet these two, while bicycling with my cycling companion Carsten north of Coober Pedy. It was taken right at the 9600Km long "Dingo fence", this dog pictured had the rights of way. Leave a Comment
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Defining an opal takes you through a journey of central Australia's geological past. Basically, billions of years ago, there used to be an inland ocean residing in Central Australia. Over the years, the ocean accumulated sediments, such as sand, dead animals and the like. Eventually, as Australia kept shifting, the ocean receded. Before the ocean receded, the silica in the sand made its way down into the remaining gaps of the compressed sandstone. Some took the shape of the dead animal others just took whatever gap they could find. After millions of years, the silica slowly converted into Opals. Australia is the only place on earth where fossilized opals abound. I've seen a beautiful specimen in the South Australia Museum at Adelaide. It also counts with some of the purest and more colorful opals. The more colors are given off by the opal, the more it is worth. Unlike the early days, when black opals were discarded, today the black opal fetches thousands of dollars more then its white counterpart. Why? The black opals are rarer.
The opal is painstakingly found through several modern or traditional means as it can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars once refined. The refining process undertaken to cut and polish an opal is no easy task. Today, diamonds are used to cut the opals. These are then polished for a finer finish. Leave a Comment
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I mentioned in my introduction page that Australia is the most urbanised large country in the world. Given the size of the country, this may seem surprising, but the difficulty of farming in a generally difficult climate without the government subsidies handed out in some other countries has meant that smaller farms must struggle or find efficiencies, often by consolidating and reducing the workforce. In general, large farms need fewer workers (except in specific cases, such as casual seasonal labour for fruit picking) and the trend is to mechanisation. Then even smaller towns struggle, as there are fewer people to support them and those remaining find that shopping is not as good as in larger centres . So the young people move to the cities.
As a comparison, here are some statistics I found on the percentage of urbanisation among larger countries:
Australia - 88.6%
United States of America – 81.4%
France – 77.1%
United Kingdom – 75.37%
Germany – 75.3%
Japan – 66.2%
And that is why you will find many small half-empty villages in Australia, with substantial distances between major rural centres.
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Tipping is not general or expected in Australia. We take the pragmatic view that laws setting minimum pay and working conditions ensure people are adequately paid for their work. You are expected only to pay for what you ordered.
Having said that, it is common to ‘round up’ the amount paid in taxis, or to round restaurant bills to the nearest $5 or $10 if you have been particularly satisfied. But nobody will be fussed if you don’t.
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The Anangu, whom are the traditional owners of Uluru (Ayers Rock) advise to visitors comming here to show their respect - particularly when concerning climbing the rock. It remains your decision if you would wish to do so or not, however please take into mind what this place represents to the Aboriginal people of Central Australia. Better still and most welcomed by the Anangu are a number of walks which can be taken in designated areas around the base of the rock. On most days there are even free guided walks - check Cultural Centre for this. The two more popular and important ones are either the Mala Walk and the Mutitjula Walk. By doing these self guided walks one gains a greater understanding of the cultural and spiritual significance of this worldly place. Also during hot or wet weather it is advisable not to attempt climbing the rock for your own personal saftey. In these conditions particularly the Mala Walk is not to be missed.
A useful free fold out booklet, with maps, on these two walks is available at the Uluru Cultural Centre, located on your right just before reaching the base road. Bicycling from Yalara Resort is an easy task for most people and one can circle Uluru along the road only in under an hour, while it's about 16KM from Yalara to the Rock. Leave a Comment
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with a .............with a................all right, with a prawn. Well its quite possible to do that in Ballina on the far north coast of NSW.
Far from being sleepy, Ballina is quite a bottleneck during school holidays, with people inching their way both ways. Admitedly on the return journey we were held up for about an hour due to a serious accident involving two vehicles in a head on collision. Given that there is only one lane both ways delays cant be avoided.
The Prawn is another of our tricky manouvres to advertise that I enjoy so much although we have just about done the big everything here now I think. Leave a Comment Website: members.ozemail.com.au/~arundell/prawn.htm
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Another true cultural experience of the Australian Outback is a venture into one of it's Pubs (hotel bars). Here is where you'll find the hard working Aussie bloke, hard working that is behind a cold beer.
Travelling the Stuart Hwy by bicycle made me appreciate the Outback pub. At the end of a day out on the road I was most looking forward to a visit to this institution of so called civilization. Of course the advent of the 4X4 Tourist has given some of these establishments a bit of a gloss over, but there are indeed genuine places to be found serving the community at what best they can.
Many Outback pubs, and especially those along the Stuart, are the main hub of vast Homesteads come roadhouses. Each and ever Outback pub has it's own special character and indeed I say characters. In recent years some famous Outback pubs have changed hands or closed down as local population has drifted away and distances become less challenging through modern road transportation. However still the Outback pub remains to serve it's soul purpose as a place where community and worker can "regularly" meet, also the modern traveller in many of these pubs is made most welcome. Leave a Comment
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on January 18, 2005
on February 11, 2007
on February 2, 2006
on February 11, 2004
on January 23, 2004
