Hmmm...


Looking at my additional posting of 12 Oct 13 - 12:48 AM, I note that I ought to have "translated" another "Australianism" : "cocky"
(as below ...)

I once left the river, went on the land,
To set myself up as a cocky so grand,
But the life didn't suit me, the way it was then,
So it's back to the Murray river, boys, and my life there again.

In this usage cocky is short for "cow-cocky" ... or, less alliteratively, "sheep cocky" ... is what we would call a property-owning farmer of, cattle ( ... cows ...) or sheep. In earlier days the expression was more likely for small landholders ... " selectors" who had taken up smaller parcels of land released by governments and councils - hoping to 'develop' their local areas.

It was a joking reference to the suggestion that their only substantially crop or yield would be 'cockies' - predatory cockatoos raiding their crop seeds ... just ahead of the even more predatory rabbits that some English fool had imported in order to keep his hunting eye in fine fettle~!

Regards!

Bob


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