Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

1875. `Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,' September, p. 99 [`Port Davey in 1875,' by the Hon. James Reid Scott, M.L.C.]:

"The dwellings occupied by the piners when up the river are of the style known as `Badger-boxes,' in distinction from huts, which have perpendicular walls, while the Badger-box is like an inverted V in section. They are covered with bark, with a thatch of grass along the ridge, and are on an average about 14 x 10 feet at the ground, and 9 or 10 feet high."

<hw>Bail</hw>, n. "A framework for securing the head of a cow while she is milked." (`O.E.D.')

This word, marked in `O.E.D.' and other Dictionaries as
Australian, is provincial English. In the `English Dialect
Dictionary,' edited by Joseph Wright, Part I., the word is
given as used in "Ireland, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk,
Hampshire and New Zealand." It is also used in Essex.

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 83:

"In every milking yard is an apparatus for confining a cow's head called a `bail.' This consists of an upright standiron, five feet in height, let into a framework, and about six inches from it another fixed at the heel, the upper part working freely in a slit, in which are holes for a peg, so that when the peg is out and the movable standiron is thrown back, there is abundance of room for a cow's head and horns, but when closed, at which time the two standirons are parallel to each other and six inches apart, though her neck can work freely up and down, it is impossible for her to withdraw her head . . ."

1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 225:

"The former bovine female was a brute to manage, whom it would have been impossible to milk without a `bail.' To what man or country the honour of this invention belongs, who can tell? It is in very general use in the Australian colonies; and my advice to any one troubled with a naughty cow, who kicks like fury during the process of milking, is to have a bail constructed in their cow-house."

<hw>Bail up</hw>, v. (1) To secure the head of a cow in a bail for milking.

(2) By transference, to stop travellers in the bush, used of bushrangers. The quotation, 1888, shows the method of transference. It then means generally, to stop. Like the similar verb, to stick up (q.v.), it is often used humorously of a demand for subscriptions, etc.