The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19627   Message #203756
Posted By: Felisi 52'
30-Mar-00 - 01:29 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Captain Matheson
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sea Shanty
Ok, I did an internet search "bluey" and here is what I found on one of the sites:
The word bluey in Australian English has a variety of meanings. The most common is the swag (i.e. the collection of possessions and daily necessaries carried by a person travelling, usually on foot, in the bush) so called because the outer covering of the swag was traditionally a blue blanket (which is also called a bluey). The earliest citation in The Australian National Dictionary for bluey as a swag is 1878 where the bluey is humped as it was by the itinerant bush worker tramping the wallaby track in the works of writers such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.

In WEBSTER'S "swag" is also refered to as loot or plunder.