Glossary of old Australian words

A starter guide to the slang and bush words you'll meet in these books. Entries marked Dennis 1915 are quoted from C. J. Dennis's own glossary to The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (public domain). The other definitions are ours, licensed CC BY 4.0.

back blocks: The remote, thinly settled country far from towns and railways. See Sheilah McLeod: A Heroine of the Back Blocks.
billabong: A waterhole or backwater left in a river bend when the main flow drops; a word taken into English from an Aboriginal language of inland New South Wales (usually given as Wiradjuri). See The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses.
billy: A tin can with a wire handle, used for boiling water and making tea over a campfire. See While the Billy Boils.
bloke Dennis 1915: A male adult of the genus homo. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
bonzer Dennis 1915: Bonzer, boshter, bosker: adjectives expressing the superlative of excellence. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
boundary rider: A station hand who rides the fences of a run, mending them and watching the stock. See The Squatter's Dream.
bushranger also bolter: An outlaw living in the bush who robbed travellers, stations and gold escorts. See Robbery Under Arms.
chiv Dennis 1915: The face. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
claim: A plot of ground on a goldfield that a digger held the right to work. See Madame Midas, In the Roaring Fifties.
clobber Dennis 1915: Raiment; vesture. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
Cobb and Co.: The coaching company whose horse-drawn coaches carried mail and passengers across the eastern colonies from the 1850s. See Verses, Popular and Humorous.
cobber Dennis 1915 also mate: A boon companion. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
cocky also cockatoo farmer, cockie: A small farmer (short for cockatoo farmer), often a selector working poor land. See On Our Selection.
cove Dennis 1915: A "chap" or "bloke" (Gipsy). See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
crook Dennis 1915: Unwell; dishonest; spurious; fraudulent. Superlative, Dead Crook. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
damper: Simple bread of flour, water and salt, baked in the ashes of a campfire. See While the Billy Boils.
digger also diggers: A gold miner on the diggings (goldfields). Later also an Australian soldier. See Australia Felix.
dinkum Dennis 1915: Honest; true. "The Dinkum Oil": the truth. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
drover also overlander: A man who moves mobs of cattle or sheep over long distances on the stock routes. See The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses.
emancipist: A convict who had served their sentence or been pardoned. See For the Term of His Natural Life.
fossick: To search for gold, often in old workings or creek beds, by hand. See Australia Felix.
humpy: A small, rough hut; a word taken into English from Yagara, the language of the Brisbane area. See On Our Selection.
jackeroo also jackaroo: A young man, often newly arrived, learning station work. See An Outback Marriage.
josser Dennis 1915: A simple fellow. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
larrikin also larakin: A rowdy young city tough; later, an irreverent, likeable rebel. See Jonah, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
mate also cobber: A close companion and partner, especially on the track or the diggings; mateship is the loyalty between mates. See Joe Wilson and His Mates.
moniker Dennis 1915: A name; a title; a signature. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
nark Dennis 1915: A spoil-sport; a churlish fellow. To nark: to annoy; to foil. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
never-never: The remote, sparsely settled inland; the far outback. See The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses.
new chum also newchum: A newly arrived immigrant, inexperienced in colonial ways. See The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn.
overlander: One who drove stock overland between colonies. See The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses.
push Dennis 1915: A company of rowdy fellows gathered together for ungentle purposes. See Jonah, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
quid Dennis 1915: A sovereign, or pound sterling. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
rorty Dennis 1915: Boisterous; rowdy. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
run: A large area of grazing land held by a squatter, usually under licence or lease. See The Squatter's Dream, Old Melbourne Memories.
selector also free selector: A small farmer who took up ('selected') a block of Crown land under the land acts of the 1860s onward. See On Our Selection.
shanty: A rough bush pub or sly-grog shop. See While the Billy Boils.
sliprails: Movable rails in a fence that slide out to make a gateway. See Over the Sliprails.
spruik Dennis 1915: To deliver a speech, as a showman. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
squatter: Originally someone who occupied Crown land without title; later a wealthy pastoralist holding a large run. See The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, Such Is Life.
station: A large pastoral property (sheep or cattle run) with its homestead. See An Outback Marriage.
stoush Dennis 1915: To punch with the fist. Also: violence. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
sundowner: A swagman who turned up at a station at sundown, too late to work but in time for a meal. See While the Billy Boils.
swag also bluey, matilda, drum: A traveller's bedroll and belongings, rolled in a blanket and carried on the back. See While the Billy Boils.
swagman also swaggie, swaggy, bagman, sundowner: A travelling worker carrying a swag from job to job; also a swaggie. See While the Billy Boils.
ticket-of-leave: A permit letting a convict live and work outside government service before the sentence ended. See For the Term of His Natural Life.
trap: A policeman (bush slang), especially a mounted trooper. See Robbery Under Arms.
trooper: A mounted police officer; on the goldfields, the police who checked diggers' licences. See In the Roaring Fifties, Robbery Under Arms.
tucker also grub: Food. See While the Billy Boils.
two-up school Dennis 1915 also two-up: A gambling den. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
wowser: A puritanical killjoy who would ban drinking, gambling and fun.
yakker Dennis 1915: Hard toil. See The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.