1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 1:
"He's a well-in squatter that took up runs or bought them cheap before free-selection, and land-boards, and rabbits, and all the other bothers that turn a chap's hair grey before his time."
<hw>Western Australia</hw>, the part of the Continent first sighted in 1527 by a Portuguese, and the last to receive responsible government, in 1890. It had been made a Crown colony in 1829.
<hw>Westralia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common abbreviation for <i>Western Australia</i> (q.v.). The word was coined to meet the necessities of the submarine cable regulations, which confine messages to words containing not more than ten letters.
1896. `The Studio,' Oct., p. 151:
"The latest example is the El Dorado of Western Australia, or as she is beginning to be more generally called `Westralia,' a name originally invented by the necessity of the electric cable, which limits words to ten letters, or else charges double rate."
1896. `Nineteenth Century,' Nov., p. 711 [Title of article]:
"The Westralian Mining Boom."
<hw>Weta</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand insect— a huge, ugly grasshopper, <i>Deinacrula megacephala</i>, called by bushmen the <i>Sawyer</i>.
1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 123: