Notes on Australianisms. Based on my own speech over the years, with

some checking in the dictionaries. Not all of these are peculiar to Australian slang, but are important in Lawson’s stories, and carry overtones.

  barrackers: people who cheer for a sporting team, etc.
  boko: crazy.
  bushman/bushwoman: someone who lives an isolated existence, far from
    cities, “in the bush”, “outback”. (today: “bushy”.  In New
    Zealand it is a timber getter.  Lawson was sacked from a forestry
    job in New Zealand, “because he wasn’t a bushman”:-)
  bushranger: an Australian ``highwayman’’, who lived in the `bush’—
    scrub—and attacked and robbed, especially gold carrying coaches
    and banks. Romanticised as anti-authoritarian Robin Hood figures—
    cf. Ned Kelly—but usually very violent.
    US use was very different (more = explorer), though some
    lexicographers think the word (along with “bush” in this sense)
    was borrowed from the US...
  churchyarder: Sounding as if dying—ready for the churchyard = cemetery
  cobber: mate, friend. Used to be derived from Hebrew chaver via
   Yiddish.  General opinion now seems to be that it entered the
   language too early for that—and an English etymology is preferred.
  fiver: a five pound (sterling) note (or “bill”)
  fossick: pick out gold, in a fairly desultory fashion.  In old
    “mullock” heaps or crvices in rocks.
  jackaroo: (Jack + kangaroo; sometimes jackeroo)—someone, in early
    days a new immigrant from England, learning to work on a
    sheep/cattle station (U.S. “ranch”.)
  kiddy: young child. “kid” plus ubiquitous Australia “-y” or “-ie”
   nobbler: a drink, esp. of spirits
  overlanding: driving (or, “droving”, cattle from pasture to market
    or railhead.)
  pannikin: a metal mug.
  Pipeclay: or Eurunderee, Where Lawson spent much of his early life
   (including his three years of school...
  Poley: name for s hornless (or dehorned) cow.
  skillion(-room): A “lean-to”, a room built up against the back of
    some other building, with separate roof.
  sliprails: portion of a fence where the rails are lossely fitted
    so that they may be removed from one side and animal let through.
  smoke-ho: a short break from, esp., heavy physical work, and those who
    wish to can smoke.
  sov.: sovereign, gold coin worth one pound sterling
  splosh: money
  Sqinny: nickname for someone with a squint.
  Stousher: nickname for someone often in a fight (or “stoush”)
  swagman (swaggy):  Generally, anyone who is walking in the “outback”
     with  a swag. (See “The Romance of the Swag”.)  Lawson also
    restricts it at times to those whom he considers to be tramps,
    not looking for work but for “handouts” (i.e., “bums” in US.  In view
    of the Great Depression, 1890->,  perhaps unfairly.  In 1892 it was
    reckoned 1/3 men were out of work)

GJC