Austral English Part 245

1880. A. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 76:

"The battery was to have eight stampers."

1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 11:

"This, with the old battery, brings the number of stampers up to sixty."

Ibid. p. 15:

"A battery of twenty-six stamp heads."

Star of Bethlehem. The Old World plant is Ornithogalum umbellatum; the name is given in Australia to Chamaescilla corymbosa, and in Tasmania to Burchardia umbellata, R. Br., both of the Liliaceae.

Star-fern, n. name given in Victoria to Gleichenia flabellata, R. Br.; called also Fan-fern. See Fern.

Starling, n. English bird-name.

The Australian species is the s.h.i.+ning Starling, Calornis metallica. The common English starling is also acclimatised.

Start, n. The young Australian has a fine contempt for the English word to begin, which he never uses where he can find any subst.i.tute. He says commence or start, and he always uses commence followed by the infinitive instead of by the verbal noun, as "The dog commenced to bark."

1896. Modern talk in the train:

"The horse started to stop, and the backers commenced to hoot."

Station, n. originally the house with the necessary buildings and home-premises of a sheep-run, and still used in that sense: but now more generally signifying the run and all that goes with it. Stations are distinguished as Sheep-stations and Cattle-stations.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. (Introd.):

"They ... will only be occupied as distant stock-stations."

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 120:

"Their [squatters'] huts or houses, gardens, paddocks, etc., form what is termed a station, while the range of country over which their flocks and herds roam is termed a run."

1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 35:

"The lecturer a.s.sured his audience that he came here to prevent this country being a squatting station."

1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 17:

"The st.u.r.dy station-children pull the bush flowers on my grave."

1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 4:

"Station--the term applied in the colonies to the homesteads of the sheep-farmers or squatters."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood,'Miner's Right,' c. xviii. p. 171:

"Men who in their youth had been peaceful stockmen and station-labourers."

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125:

"I'm travelen' down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand, I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand, And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, But there's no demand for a stationhand along the Castlereagh."

Station-jack, n. a form of bush cookery.

1853. `The Emigrant's Guide to Australia.' (Article on Bush-Cookery, from an unpublished MS. by Mrs. Chisholm], pp. 111-12:

"The great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out of salt beef and flour ... let the Sunday share be soaked on the Sat.u.r.day, and beat it well ... take the ... flour and work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it, and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as `Station jack.'"

Stavewood, n. another name for the Flindosy Beech. See Beech.

Stay-a-while, n. a tangled bush; sometimes called Wait-a-while (q.v.).

Steamer, n. obsolete name for a colonial dish.

See quotation.

1820. Lieut. C. Jeffreys, R.N., `Geographical and Descriptive Delineations of the Island of Van Dieman's Land,'

p. 69:

"Their meal consisted of the hindquarters of a kangaroo cut into mincemeat, stewed in its own gravy, with a few rashers of salt pork; this dish is commonly called a steamer."

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.

p. 309:

"Our largest animals are the Kangaroos ... making most delicious stews and steaks, the favourite dish being what is called a steamer, composed of steaks and chopped tail, (with a few slices of salt pork) stewed with a very small quant.i.ty of water for a couple of hours in a close vessel."

Stewart Islander, n. name given to the oyster, Ostrea chiloensis, Sowerby; so called because it is specially abundant on Stewart Island off the south coast of New Zealand. The Stewart Island forms are mud oysters, those of Sydney Cove growing on rock. See Oyster.

Stick-Caterpillar, n. See Phasmid.

Stick-up, v. tr. (1) The regular word for the action of bushrangers stopping pa.s.sers-by on the highway and robbing them.

(2) In the case of a bank or a station, simply to rob.

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii.

c. xiii. p. 502:

"It was only the previous night that he had been `stuck up'

with a pistol at his head."

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 187:

"Unless the mail came well armed, a very few men could `stick it up,' without any trouble or danger."

1857. `Melbourne Punch,' Feb. 19, p. 26, col. 1: