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 - Edward Ellis Morris

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 118:

"One of the tallest and most fattening and wholesome of Australian pastoral salt-bushes; also highly recommended for cultivation, as natural plants. By close occupation of the sheep and cattle runs, have largely disappeared, and as this useful bush is not found in many parts of Australia, sheep and cattle depastured on saltbush country are said to remain free of fluke, and get cured of Distoma-disease, and of other allied ailments (Mueller)."

<hw>Old-Wife</hw>, n. a New South Wales fish, Enoplosus armatus, White, family Percidae. The local name Old-Wife in England is given to a quite different fish, one of the Sea-Breams.

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 32:

"The `old-wife' (Enoplosus armatus, White) is another fish which from its small size is not esteemed nearly so highly as it ought to be. It is a most exquisite fish."

<hw>Olive, Mock</hw>, i.q. Axe-breaker (q.v.).

<hw>Olive, Native</hw>, n. one of the many names given to four trees—

Bursaria spinosa, Cav., N.O. Pittosporeae,; Elaeocarpus cyaneus, Ait., N.O. Tiliaceae; Notelaea ovala, R. Br., N.O. Jasmineae,; and, in Queensland, to Olea paniculata, R. Br., N.O. Jasmineae,, a tree of moderate size, with ovoid fruit resembling a small common Olive.

<hw>Olive, Spurious</hw>, n. another name for the tree Notelaea ligustrina, Vent. See Ironwood.

<hw>On</hw>, prep. Used for In, in many cases, especially of towns which sprang from Goldfields, and where the original phrase was, e.g. "on the Ballarat diggings, or goldfield." Thus, an inhabitant still speaks of living On Ballarat, On Bendigo; On South Melbourne (formerly Emerald Hill).