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

[Footnote]: "Nievah vahs, sometimes incorrectly pronounced never nevers, a Comderoi term signifying unoccupied land."

1884. A. W. Stirling, `The Never Never Land: a Ride in North Queensland,' p. 5:

"The `Never Never Land,' as the colonists call all that portion of it [Queensland] which lies north or west of Cape Capricorn."

1887. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. i. p. 279:

"In very sparsely populated country, such as the district of Queensland, known as the Never Never Country—presumably because a person, who has once been there, invariably asseverates that he will never, never, on any consideration, go back."

1890. J. S. O'Halloran, Secretary Royal Colonial Institute, <i>apud</i> Barrere and Leland:

"The Never, Never Country means in Queensland the occupied pastoral country which is furthest removed from the more settled districts."

1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 85:

"The weird `Never, Never Land,' so called by the earliest pioneers from the small chance they anticipated, on reaching it, of ever being able to return to southern civilization."

<hw>Newberyite</hw>, <i>n</i>. [Named after J. Cosmo Newbery of Melbourne.] "A hydrous phosphate of magnesium occurring in orthorhombic crystals in the bat-guano of the Skipton Caves, Victoria." (`Century.')