"How weary, how dreary the stillness must be!
But oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me."
1886. Frank Cowan: `Australia; a Charcoal Sketch':
"The bushman . . . <i>Gunyah</i>, his bark hovel; <i>Damper</i>,
his unleavened bread baked in the ashes; <i>Billy</i>, his
tea-kettle, universal pot and pan and bucket; <i>Sugar-bag</i>,
his source of saccharine, a bee-tree; <i>Pheasant</i>, his
facetious metaphoric euphism for Liar, quasi Lyre-bird; <i>Fit
for Woogooroo</i>, for Daft or Idiotic; <i>Brumby</i>, his
peculiar term for wild horse; <i>Scrubber</i>, wild ox;
<i>Nuggeting</i>, calf-stealing; <i>Jumbuck</i>, sheep, in
general; an <i>Old-man</i>, grizzled wallaroo or kangaroo;
<i>Station, Run</i>, a sheep- or cattle-ranch; and
<i>Kabonboodgery</i>--an echo of the sound diablery for ever in
his ears, from dawn to dusk of Laughing Jackass and from dusk
to dawn of Dingo--his half-bird -and-beast-like vocal
substitute for Very Good. . . ."
1896. H.Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 71:
"He was a typical bushman, . . . and of the old bush school;
one of those slight active little fellows, whom we used to see
in cabbage-tree hats, Crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and
elastic-side boots."
(2) One who has knowledge of the bush, and is skilled in its
ways. A "good bushman" is especially used of a man who can
find his way where there are no tracks.
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' pp. 78, 79:
"It is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as Mr. Batman
would venture upon such an expedition had he not been well.
In fact a better bushman at this time could not be met with."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 3:
"The worst bushman had to undertake the charge of the camp,
cook the provisions, and look after the horses, during the
absence of the rest on flying excursions."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40:
"Very slight landmarks will serve to guide a good bushman,
for no two places are really exactly alike."
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 78:
"One of the best bushmen in that part of the country: the men
said he could find his way over it blindfold, or on the darkest
night that ever was."
(3) Special sense. See quotation.
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 80:
"Some were what is termed, <i>par excellence</i>, bushmen--that
is, men who split rails, get posts, shingles, take contracts
for building houses, stockyards, etc.--men, in fact, who work
among timber continually, sometimes felling and splitting,
sometimes sawing."
<hw>Bushmanship</hw>, <i>n</i>. knowledge of the ways of the
bush.
1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 261:
"A good laugh at the bushmanship displayed."
<hw>Bushranger</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who ranges or traverses the
bush, far and wide; an Australian highwayman; in the early days
usually an escaped convict. Shakspeare uses the verb `to
range' in this connection.
"Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage, boldly here."
(`Richard II.,' III. ii. 39.)
"Ranger" is used in modern English for one who protects
and not for one who robs; as `the Ranger' of a Park.
1806. May 4, `Sydney Gazette' or `New South Wales Advertiser,
given in `History of New South Wales,' p. 265:
"Yesterday afternoon, William Page, the bushranger repeatedly
advertised, was apprehended by three constables."
1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,'
p. 166:
[The settlements in Van Diemen's Land have] "been infested for
many years past by a banditti of runaway convicts, who have
endangered the person and property of every one. . . . These
wretches, who are known in the colony by the name of
bushrangers. . ."
1820. Lieut. Chas. Jeffreys, `Van Dieman's [sic] Land,' p. 15:
"The supposition . . . rests solely on the authority of the Bush
Rangers, a species of wandering brigands, who will be elsewhere
described."
1838. T. L. `Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 9:
"Bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which happily
can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted
police."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 81:
"This country [Van Diemen's Land] is as much infested as New
South Wales with robbers, runaway convicts, or, as they are
termed, Bush-rangers."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 77:
"The whole region was infested by marauding bands of
bush-rangers, terrible after nightfall."
1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 252:
"Whilst he was engaged in this duty in Victoria, a band
of outlaws--'bushrangers' as they are colonially termed--
who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career
of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in
the mountain ranges."
<hw>Bush-ranging</hw>, <i>n</i>. the practice of the Bushranger
(q.v.).