Australian Slang D - N

G'day mate, how ya goin'? - Bloody bonzer!

Want to know what Aussies are talking about?

Are you fair dinkum?

Here is more Australian slang, no worries, you'll get used to it :).

damper	bush bread made from flour and water and cooked in a camp oven
desert	a large area of sand, stone or low vegetation where it is always very hot and dry
didgeridoo	a long wooden musical instrument, played especially in Australia
dingo	indigenous wild dog
dip	a place where the surface of the road or ground goes down suddenly, then goes up again
dog fence	the world's largest fence, erected to keep Dingos out of south-eastern Australia
down under	Australia
droving	moving livestock a considerable distance
dunny	an outdoor toilet

Eski	trademark name for a portable ice box used for keeping beer and food cool

fair dinkum	virtually the same as True Blue - honest, reliable, trustworthy ; 'Are you fair dinkum?' means 'are you telling the truth?'
feral animals	feral animals used to live with humans but have become wild. In Australia these are brumbies (horses), camels, cats, donkeys, goats etc.
fettler	a worker on the railway lines
flash floods	a sudden flood that is caused by a lot of rain falling in a short period of time
floodway	where a creek could cross the road after heavy rains
fossicking	hunting for gems or semiprecious stones
four-wheel-drive (4WD)	a system in a car or other vehicle by which the power of the engine is given to all four wheels to make it easier to drive

g'day	good day, traditional Australian greeting; an informal way of saying 'hello'
galah	noisy parrot, thus a noisy idiot
gibber	Aboriginal word for stone or boulder;
gibber plain	stony desert = small, loose stones found scattered over plains; made up of many small rocks or stones ('gibbers') after the lighter sands and clays have washed or blown away over time.
gidgee	a type of small acacia
goanna	native Australian lizard
grade	to level a road, usually by means of a bulldozer fitted with a 'blade' that scrapes off the top layer and pushes it to the side
grader	a vehicle that grades the uneven surface of an unsealed road
gravel road	an unsealed road with a surface made of gravel
grid	metal bars over a road to keep cattle at one side of the grid

Homestead	the main house on a farm, the residence of a station owner or manager
hotel	a pub - there's no garanty that it offers a bed

Joey	young kangaroo or wallaby
jumbuck	sheep
jump-ups	name given to low ranges, isolated hills and low tablelands

Kelpie	Australian sheep dog, originally bred from a Scottish collie
koori	Aborigine (mostly south of the Murray River)

Lamington	square of sponge cake covered in chocolate icing and coconut
livestock	the animals that are kept on a farm

Magpie	Australian native bird
mallee	the mallee tree is a small eucalyptus that spreads its branches below the earth's surface and emerges multi-trunked. There are many varieties and are found all over the southern half of Australia.
mate	general a term of familiarity, whether you know the person or not; a friend
matilda	a swag
min min	mysterious lights at night in the outback
mound springs	natural outlets of the Great Artesian Basin, sometimes surrounded by walls of minerals
mozzies	mosquitoes
mulga	arid-zone acacia
muster	round up (find and gather together) livestock

Namatjira

the first Aboriginal artist to put paint to paper and produce landscapes that weren't traditional dot paintings. He made us aware of the outback colours before we saw them with our own eyes.

never-never

a place even more remote than back o'Bourke

no worries

main Australian attitude