Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris
1865. `Once a Week.' `The Bulla-Bulla Bunyip.'
"Hours ago the bronze-wing pigeons had taken their evening draught from the coffee-coloured water-hole beyond the butcher's paddock, and then flown back into the bush to roost on `honeysuckle' and in heather."
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122:
"Another most beautiful pigeon is the `bronze-wing,' which is nearly the size of the English wood-pigeon, and has a magnificent purply-bronze speculum on the wings."
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 33:
"Both the bronze-wing and Wonga-Wonga pigeon are hunted so keenly that in a few years they will have become extinct in Victoria."
1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p. 4, col. 6:
"Those who care for museum studies must have been interested in tracing the Australian quail and pigeon families to a point where they blend their separate identities in the partridge bronze-wing of the Central Australian plains. The eggs mark the converging lines just as clearly as the birds, for the partridge-pigeon lays an egg much more like that of a quail than a pigeon, and lays, quail fashion, on the ground."
<hw>Brook-Lime</hw>, <i>n</i>. English name for an aquatic plant, applied in Australia to the plant <i>Gratiola pedunculata</i>, R. Br., <i>N.O. Scrophularinae</i>. Also called <i>Heartsease</i>.
<hw>Broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied to the plant <i>Calycothrix tetragona</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Myrtaceae</i>.
<hw>Broom, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian timber, <i>Viminaria denudala</i>, Smith, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>.
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 612:
"Native broom. Wood soft and spongy."
<hw>Broom, Purple</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for <i>Comesperma retusum</i>, Lab., <i>N.O. Polygaleae</i>.
<hw>Brown Snake</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Snake</i>.
<hw>Brown-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name for the <i>Tasmanian Tit</i>. See <i>Tit</i>.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iii, pl. 54:
"<i>Acanthiza Diemenensis</i>, Gould. Brown-tail, colonists of Van Diemen's Land."
<hw>Brown Tree-Lizard</hw>, <i>n</i>. of New Zealand, <i>Naultinus pacificus</i>.
<hw>Browny</hw> or <hw>Brownie</hw>, <i>n</i>. a kind of currant loaf.
1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White kangaroo,' p. 57:
"Cake made of flour, fat and sugar, commonly known as
`Browny.'"
1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 57:
"Four o'clock. `Smoke O!' again with more bread and brownie (a bread sweetened with sugar and currants)."
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass,' p. 36:
"Roast mutton and brownie are given us to eat."
<hw>Brumby, Broombie</hw> (spelling various), <i>n</i>. a wild horse. The origin of this word is very doubtful. Some claim for it an aboriginal, and some an English source. In its present shape it figures in one aboriginal vocabulary, given in Curr's `Australian Race' (1887), vol. iii. p. 259. At p. 284, <i>booramby</i> is given as meaning "wild" on the river Warrego in Queensland. The use of the word seems to have spread from the Warrego and the Balowne about 1864. Before that date, and in other parts of the bush ere the word came to them, wild horses were called <i>clear-skins</i> or <i>scrubbers</i>, whilst <i>Yarraman</i> (q.v.) is the aboriginal word for a quiet or broken horse. A different origin was, however, given by an old resident of New South Wales, to a lady of the name of Brumby, viz. "that in the early days of that colony, a Lieutenant Brumby, who was on the staff of one of the Governors, imported some very good horses, and that some of their descendants being allowed to run wild became the ancestors the wild horses of New South Wales and Queensland." Confirmation of this story is to be desired.
1880. `The Australasian,' Dec. 4, p. 712, col. 3:
"Passing through a belt of mulga, we saw, on reaching its edge, a mob of horses grazing on the plains beyond. These our guide pronounced to be `brumbies,' the bush name here [Queensland] for wild horses."
1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 176:
"The wild horses of this continent known all over it by the
Australian name of `brumbies.'"
Ibid. p. 178:
"The untamed and `unyardable' scrub brumby."
1888. R. Kipling, `Plain Tales from the Hills,' p. 160:
"Juggling about the country, with an Australian larrikin; a `brumby' with as much breed as the boy. … People who lost money on him called him a `brumby.'"
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms.' p. 67:
"The three-cornered weed he rode that had been a `brumbee.'"
1895. `Chambers' Journal,' Nov. 2, Heading `Australian Brumbie Horses':
"The brumbie horse of Australia, tho' not a distinct equine variety, possesses attributes and qualities peculiar to itself, and, like the wild cattle and wild buffaloes of Australia, is the descendant of runaways of imported stock."
1896. `Sydney Morning Herald,' (Letter from `J. F. G.,' dated Aug. 24):
"Amongst the blacks on the Lower Balonne, Nebine, Warrego, and Bulloo rivers the word used for horse is `baroombie,' the `a' being cut so short that the word sounds as `broombie,' and as far as my experience goes refers more to unbroken horses in distinction to quiet or broken ones (`yarraman')."
1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 156:
"Yet at times we long to gallop where the reckless bushman rides
In the wake of startled brumbies that are flying for their
hides."
<hw>Brush</hw>, <i>n</i>. at first undergrowth, small trees, as in England; afterwards applied to larger timber growth and forest trees. Its earlier sense survives in the compound words; see below.
1820. Oxley, `New South Wales' (`O.E.D.'):
"The timber standing at wide intervals, without any brush or undergrowth."
1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' (2nd ed.) vol. i. p. 62:
"We journeyed … at one time over good plains, at another through brushes."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. Introd. p. 77:
"Jungle, or what in New South Wales would be called brush."
Ibid. vol. v. Pl. 59:
"Those vast primeval forests of New South Wales to which the colonists have applied the name of brushes."
1853. Chas. St. Julian and Edward K. Silvester, `The Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales,' p. 20:
"What the colonists term `brush' lands are those covered with tall trees growing so near each other and being so closely matted together by underwood, parasites, and creepers, as to be wholly impassable."
1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67, note:
"Brush was allotted to the growth of large timber on alluvial lands, with other trees intermixed, and tangled vines. The soil was rich, and `brushland' was well understood as a descriptive term. It may die away, but its meaning deserves to be pointed out."
<hw>Brush-Apple</hw>,