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

1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria' (1841-1851), p. 148:

"Of the mia-mias, some were standing; others had, wholly or in part, been thrown down by their late occupants."

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 32:

"A few branches thrown up against the prevailing wind, in rude imitation of the native mia-mia."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 111:

"[The blacks] would compel [the missionaries] to carry their burdens while travelling, or build their mia-mias when halting to camp for the night; in fact, all sorts of menial offices had to be discharged by the missionaries for these noble black men while away on the wilds!"

[Footnote]: "Small huts, made of bark and leafy boughs, built so as to protect them against the side from which the wind blew."

<hw>Micky</hw>, <i>n</i>. young wild bull. "Said to have originated in Gippsland, Victoria. Probably from the association of bulls with Mickeys, or Irishmen." (Barere and Leland.)

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 217:

"The wary and still more dangerously sudden `Micky,' a two-year-old bull."