1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol, iii. p. 175_Austral English

"The Murrumbidgee was running a `banker'--water right up to the

banks."

1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. vii. p. 52:

"The driver stated that he had heard the river was `a banker.'"

1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 45:

"The creeks were bankers, and the flood

Was forty miles round Bourke."

Ibid. p. 100:

"Till the river runs a banker,

All stained with yellow mud."

<hw>Banksia</hw>, n. "A genus of Australian shrubs with

umbellate flowers,--now cultivated as ornamental shrubs in

Europe." (`O.E.D.') Called after Mr. Banks, naturalist of the

Endeavour, afterwards Sir Joseph Banks. The so-called

Australian Honeysuckle (q.v.). See also

Bottle-brush.

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 221:

"The different species of banksia. The finest new genus

hitherto found in New Holland has been destined by Linnaeus,

with great propriety, to transmit to posterity the name of Sir

Joseph Banks, who first discovered it in his celebrated voyage

round the world."

1798. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South

Wales,' p. 557:

"A few berries, the yam and fern root, the flowers of the

different banksia, and at times some honey, make up the whole

vegetable catalogue."

1829. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of the Linnaean

Society,' vol. xv. p. 312:

"Scrubs where the different species of banksia are found, the

flowers of which I (Mr. Caley) have reason to think afford it

sustenance during winter."

1833. C. Sturt, `South Australia,' vol. ii. c. ii. p. 30:

"Some sandhills . . . crowned by banksias."

1845. J. Q. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 39:

"Many different species of banksia grow in great plenty in the

neighbourhood of Sydney, and from the density of their foliage

are very ornamental."

1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 331:

"The table-land is covered by forests of stringy-bark, of

melaleuca-gum, and banksia."

1851. `Quarterly Review,' Dec., p. 40:

"In this they will find an extremely rich collection of

bottle-brush-flowered, zigzag-leaved, grey-tinted, odd-looking

things, to most eyes rather strange than beautiful,

notwithstanding that one of them is named Banksia

speciosa. They are the `Botany Bays' of old-fashioned

gardeners, but are more in the shrub and tree line than that of

flowering pots. Banksia Solandei will remind them to

turn to their `Cook's Voyages' when they get home, to read how

poor Dr. Solander got up a mountain and was heartily glad to get

down again."

1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 46:

"The banksias are of historic interest, inasmuch as the genus

was dedicated already by the younger Linne in 1781 to Sir

Joseph Banks, from whom the Swedish naturalist received

branchlets of those species, which in Captain Cook's first

voyage more than 100 years ago (1770) were gathered by Banks at

Botany-Bay and a few other places of the east coast of

Australia."

1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of the Wool Trade,' p. 228:

"A banksia plain, with its collection of

bottle-brush-like-flowers, may have its charms for a botanist,

but its well-known sandy ground forbids the hope of good

grasses."

<hw>Baobab</hw>, n. a tree, native of Africa,

Adansonia digitata. The name is Ethiopian. It has been

introduced into many tropical countries. The Australian

species of the genus is A. gregorii, F. v. M., called also

Cream of Tartar or Sour Gourd-tree,

Gouty-stem (q.v.), and Bottle-tree (q.v.).

<hw>Barber</hw>, or <hw>Tasmanian Barber</hw>, n. a name

for the fish Anthias rasor, Richards., family

Percidae; also called Red-Perch. See

Perch. It occurs in Tasmania, New Zealand, and Port

Jackson. It is called Barber from the shape of the

praeoperculum, one of the bones of the head. See

quotation.

1841. John Richardson, `Description of Australian Fish,' p. 73:

"Serranus Rasor.-- Tasmanian Barber. . . . The

serrature of the preoperculum is the most obvious and general

character by which the very numerous Serrani are connected with

each other . . . The Van Diemen's Land fish, which is described

below, is one of the `Barbers,' a fact which the specific

appellation rasor is intended to indicate; the more

classical word having been previously appropriated to another

species. . . Mr. Lempriere states that it is known locally as

the `red perch or shad.'"

[Richardson also says that Cuvier founded a subdivision of the

Serrani on the characters of the scales of the jaws,

under the name of `les Barbiers,' which had been previously

grouped by Block under the title Anthias.]

<hw>Barcoo-grass</hw>, n. an Australian grass,

Anthistiria membranacea, Lindl. One of the best pasture

grasses in Queensland, but growing in other colonies also.

<hw>Barcoo Rot</hw>, n. a disease affecting inhabitants

of various parts of the interior of Australia, but chiefly

bushmen. It consists of persistent ulceration of the skin,

chiefly on the back of the hands, and often originating in

abrasions.

It is attributed to monotony of diet and to the cloudless

climate, with its alternations of extreme cold at night and

burning heat by day. It is said to be maintained and

aggravated by the irritation of small flies.

1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 46:

"Land scurvy is better known in Queensland by local names,

which do not sound very pleasant, such as `Barcoo rot,'

`Kennedy rot,' according to the district it appears in. There

is nothing dangerous about it; it is simply the festering of

any cut or scratch on one's legs, arms or hands. . . They take

months to heal. . . Want of vegetables is assigned as the

cause."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 58:

"In Western Queensland people are also subject to bad sores on

the hand, called Barcoo-rot."

<hw>Barcoo Vomit</hw>, n. a sickness occurring in

inhabitants of various parts of the high land of the interior

of Australia. It is characterized by painless attacks of

vomiting, occurring immediately after food is taken, followed

by hunger, and recurring as soon as hunger is satisfied.

The name Barcoo is derived from the district traversed

by the river Barcoo, or Cooper, in which this complaint and the

Barcoo Rot are common. See Dr. E. C. Stirling's `Notes

from Central Australia,' in `Intercolonial Quarterly Journal of

Medicine and Surgery,' vol. i. p. 218.

<hw>Bargan</hw>, n. a name of the Come-back

Boomerang (q.v.). (Spelt also barragan.)

1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 70:

"The `come-back' variety (of boomerang) is not a fighting

weapon. A dialect name for it is bargan, which word may be

explained in our language to mean `bent like a sickle or

crescent moon.'"

<hw>Barking Owl</hw>, n. a bird not identified, and not

in Gould (who accompanied Leichhardt).

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition, p. 47:

"The glucking-bird and the barking-owl were heard throughout

the moonlight night."

<hw>Barrack</hw>, v. to jeer at opponents, to interrupt

noisily, to make a disturbance; with the preposition "for," to

support as a partisan, generally with clamour. An Australian

football term dating from about 1880. The verb has been ruled

unparliamentary by the Speaker in the Victorian Legislative

Assembly. It is, however, in very common colloquial use. It

is from the aboriginal word borak (q.v.), and the sense

of jeering is earlier than that of supporting, but jeering at

one side is akin to cheering for the other. Another suggested

derivation is from the Irish pronunciation of "Bark," as

(according to the usually accepted view) "Larrikin" from

"larking." But the former explanation is the more probable.

There is no connection with soldiers' "barracks;" nor is it

likely that there is any, as has been ingeniously suggested,

with the French word baragouin, gibberish.

1890. `Melbourne Punch,' Aug. 14, p. 106, col. 3:

"To use a football phrase, they all to a man `barrack' for the

British Lion."

1893. `The Age,' June 17, p. 15, col. 4:

"[The boy] goes much to football matches, where he barracks,

and in a general way makes himself intolerable."

1893. `The Argus,' July 5, p. 9, col. 4, Legislative Assembly:

"Mr. Isaacs:. . . He hoped this `barracking' would not

be continued." [Members had been interrupting him.]

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Sept. 9, p. 1, col. 6:

"He noticed with pleasure the decrease of disagreeable

barracking by spectators at matches during last season.

Good-humoured badinage had prevailed, but the spectators had

been very well conducted."

<hw>Barracker</hw>, n. one who barracks (q.v.).

1893. `The Age,' June 27, p. 6, col. 6:

"His worship remarked that the `barracking' that was carried on

at football matches was a mean and contemptible system, and was

getting worse and worse every day. Actually people were afraid

to go to them on account of the conduct of the crowd of

`barrackers.' It took all the interest out of the game to see

young men acting like a gang of larrikins."

1894. `"The Argus,' Nov. 29, p. 4, col. 9:

"The `most unkindest cut of all' was that the Premier, who was

Mr. Rogers's principal barracker during the elections, turned

his back upon the prophet and did not deign to discuss his

plan."

<hw>Barracks</hw>, n. a building on a station with rooms

for bachelors.