"This plant, having obtained some reputation in Australasia in certain pulmonary complaints, has acquired the appellation to the Colonies of `Queensland Asthma Herb'. Nevertheless, it is by no means endemic in Australasia, for it is a common tropical weed."
<hw>Aua</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand fish, <i>Agonostoma forsteri</i>, Bleek. Another Maori name is <i>Makawhiti</i>; also called <i>Sea-Mullet</i> and sometimes <i>Herring</i>; (q.v.). It is abundant also in Tasmanian estuaries, and is one of the fishes which when dried is called <i>Picton Herring</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Maray</i> and <i>Mullet</i>. <i>Agonostoma</i> is a genus of the family <i>Mugilidae</i> or <i>Grey-Mullets</i>.
<hw>Aurora australis</hw>, <i>n.</i> the Southern equivalent for <i>Aurora borealis</i>.
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 214:
"Sept. 5, 1788. About half after six in the evening, we saw an <i>Aurora Australis</i>, a phenomenon uncommon in the southern hemisphere."
<hw>Austral</hw>, <i>adj</i>. "Belonging to the South, Southern. Lat. <i>Australis</i>, from <i>auster</i>, south-wind." (`O.E.D.') The word is rarely used in Australasia in its primary sense, but now as equivalent to Australian or Australasian.
1823. Wentworth's Cambridge poem on `Australasia':
"And grant that yet an Austral Milton's song,
Pactolus-like, flow deep and rich along,
An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page
To Nature true may charm in every age;
And that an Austral Pindar daring soar,
Where not the Theban Eagle reach'd before."
1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,' Motto in Geographical Memoir of New South Wales, p. 485:
"I first adventure. Follow me who list; And be the second Austral harmonist." <i>Adapted from Bishop Hall</i>.