A Visitor's Guide to the Real Australia - part 3
...Colloquialisms continued:
rough as guts: really basic, pretty awful; far from sophisticated, common, minus the trimmings.
salties: salt-water crocodiles.
same-same: exactly the same with little or no variation; repetitious to the extent that it is tedious or boring.
SES: the State Emergency Service.
station: a large urban or remote property running sheep or cattle; some can be a thousand or more square kilometres, but scarcity of feed per acre makes the size necessary.
Steve Irwin: late TV personality with an adventurous spirit who courted danger to bring up-close-and-personal footage to millions of viewers. Steve died tragically after being fatally stung by a stingray on one of his film shoots.
swag: a sleeping bag or roll, often with a hood, which is warm, hopefully waterproof and can be used on open ground without the cover of a tent; also describes a person’s bedding such as an ordinary sleeping bag. During the depression of the 1930’s, “swaggies” were often seen with their bedroll on their back, having left their families to wander the country in search of paid work.
swan (around): drift, wander, move around carelessly and with no apparent motivation or destination in mind.
swanky: classy, posh, expensive, upper-class.
tinnies: cans, usually of beer, but can refer to canned mixers such as bourbon and Coke.
tinny: a small aluminium boat or runabout.
Top End: the northern section of the Australian continent, mainly the tropics.
tread(s): tyre(s) as on a vehicle. Also used to describe a type of casual sandal made from old tyre treads; sometimes any form of footwear - “That’s a flash pair of treads you’ve got.”
tucker: food.
turf: area, locality, neighbourhood, vicinity, familiar ground.
two-dog night: an extremely cold night, when just having a single dog to keep one warm is not enough.
veg: [pronounced: vedge, as in sledge], shortened form of vegetate: to relax, chill out, laze around, do nothing, take it easy.
whingeing: whining or complaining; forever criticising.
(get the) wood (on): acquire information, learn about.
yakka: work, usually paid; also refers to anything that requires more than a little physical effort.
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