NICKNAMES
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Beer Bottle:
Empty from the neck up.
Pothole:
Always in the road.
Showbag:
Full of crap.
Whisper:
Never shouts a drink.
Plover:
Skinny legs.
Cyclone:
Last name Tracey.
Walk into the Railton Pub and look at the
footy tipping or racing sweeps.
Up on the board there’s Stigz, Butch, Rat,
Pook, Wozzel, Boof, Bullpit, Foxy, Snake,
Sparra, Nobby, Froggy, Bear, Ferret and Stall.
And it doesn’t stop at nicknames for people.
‘‘The pill’’ was a name wharfies gave to the
maritime control centre, because it managed
all the berths in the port.
A bloke in speedos is fashioning ‘‘budgie
smugglers’’, if you’re off to Queensland for a
holiday, you’re ‘‘going troppo’’ and if
something is a long way away it’s ‘‘back of
Bourke’’.
Even back when convicts worked the land,
they called kangaroos ‘‘muster’’, ‘‘bolter’’,
‘‘rollup’’ and ‘‘servants of the crown’’, and
bushrangers called them ‘‘bush telegraph’’.
‘‘Slang is making a comeback now, which is
not a bad thing, I don’t think. It makes life
fun,’’ Mrs Lee said.
‘‘Well, we’ve got a prime minister now who
speaks with a very broad Australian accent.’’