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

by Edward Ellis Morris

"Lo, by the `humpy' door, a smockless Venus."

(2) Applied to a settler's house, very small and primitive.

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 133:

"To dwell in the familiar old bark `humpy,' so full of happy memories. The roof was covered with sheets of bark held down by large wooden riders pegged in the form of a square to one another."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 57:

"A lonely hut . . . and a kitchen—a smaller humpey—at the back."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' p. 247:

"He's to bed in the humpy."

1893. Gilbert Parker, `Pierre and his People,' p. 135:

"Shon McGann was lying on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut,—an Australian would call it a humpey."