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

1886. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 193:

You see he was bred in a bangalow wood,
And bangalow pith was the principal food
His mother served out in her shanty."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 592:

"Bangalow. . . . The small stems sometimes go under the name of `Moreton Bay Canes.' It is a very ornamental, feathery-leaved palm."

<hw>Bang-tail muster</hw>. See quotation.

1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, `The New Churn in the Queensland Bush,' p. 61:

"Every third or fourth year on a cattle station, they have what is called a `bang tail muster'; that is to say, all the cattle are brought into the yards, and have the long hairs at the end of the tail cut off square, with knives or sheep-shears. . . The object of it is. . .to find out the actual number of cattle on the run, to compare with the number entered on the station books."

<hw>Banker</hw>, <i>n</i>. a river full up to the top of the banks. Compare Shakspeare: "Like a proud river, peering o'er his bounds." (`King John,' III. i. 23.)

1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol, iii. p. 175

"The Murrumbidgee was running a `banker'—water right up to the banks."