<hw>Billabong</hw>, <i>n</i>. an effluent from a river, returning to it, or often ending in the sand, in some cases running only in flood time.
In the Wiradhuri dialect of the centre of New South Wales, East coast, <i>billa</i> means a river and <i>bung</i> dead. See <i>Bung. Billa</i> is also a river in some Queensland dialects, and thus forms part of the name of the river Belyando. In the Moreton Bay dialect it occurs in the form <i>pill</i> , and in the sense of `tidal creek.' In the `Western Australian Almanack' for 1842, quoted in J. Fraser's `Australian Language,' 1892, Appendix, p. 50, <i>Bilo</i> is given for <i>River</i>.
<i> Billabong</i> is often regarded as a synonym for <i>Anabranch</i> (q.v.); but there is a distinction. From the original idea, the <i>Anabranch</i> implies rejoining the river; whilst the <i>Billabong</i> implies continued separation from it; though what are called <i>Billabongs</i> often do rejoin.
1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' p. 30:
"A dried-up tributary of the Gregory, which I named the
Macadam."
[Footnote]: "In the south, such a creek as the Macadam is termed a <i>billy-bonn</i> [sic], from the circumstance of the water carrier returning from it with his pitcher (<i>billy</i>) empty (<i>bong</i>, literally dead)."
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 298:
"What the Major calls, after the learned nomenclature of Colonel Jackson, in the `Journal of the Geographical Society,' anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels coming out of a stream and returning into it again."
1880. P. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting on the Warrego:'
"In yon great range may huddle billabongs."