Bert Lloyd told me a Cockie was a small holder in Australia. Cockie is short for cockatoo, on the grounds that cockatoos are all that they used to raise on the farm. Once a year they would plough the land and once a year they would sow the corn and once a year the cockatoos would come down and eat it.
The Cockies were so poor that they even used to eat cockatoos. You catch your cockatoo pluck it and draw it then cover it in water in a pan. When the water is boiling you put a horseshoe in with the cockatoo. Bring the water back to boil, and when the horseshoe is soft give the cockatoo another ten minutes......
kind regards
Nick