1894. `The Australasian,' April 28, p. 732, col. 1:
[Statement as to origin of melitose by the Baron von Mueller.] "Sir Frederick M'Coy has traced the production of mellitose also to a smaller cicade."
<hw>Melon</hw>, <i>n</i>. Besides its botanical use, the word is applied in Australia to a small kangaroo, the <i>Paddy-melon</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Melon-hole</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of honey-combing of the surface in the interior plains, dangerous to horsemen, ascribed to the work of the <i>Paddy-melon</i>. See preceding word, and compare the English <i>Rabbit-hole</i>. The name is often given to any similar series of holes, such as are sometimes produced by the growing of certain plants.
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 9:
"The soil of the Bricklow scrub is a stiff clay, washed out by the rains into shallow holes, well known by the squatters under the name of melon-holes."
Ibid. p: 77:
"A stiff, wiry, leafless, polyganaceous plant grows in the shallow depressions of the surface of the ground, which are significantly termed by the squatters `Melon-holes,' and abound in the open Box-tree flats."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' p. 220:
"The plain is full of deep melon-holes, and the ground is rotten and undermined with rats."