Garry Gillard > quizzes >
1. Finish the sentence: "Flat out like ...
... a lizard drinking". There are probably other good answers. That's the only one I know.
2. What was a "deener"?
An Australian shilling coin – which disappeared in favour of ten cents on 14 February 1966. The ACOD thinks it probably came ultimately from the Roman denarius, a silver coin worth ten copper asses - where "as" meant "unity", not a quadriped.
3. Where is Woop Woop?
Nowhere exactly, but probably back of Burke, in the bush. A man on the wallaby might go there. Stefan Elliott made a film set there, and his career went bung (Welcome to Woop Woop, 1997).
4. What would a Cockney say instead of "a Captain Cook"?
A butcher's. Both are rhyming slang for a "look".
5. What else could you say instead of "not the full quid"?
"A stubby short of a six-pack", "a few sandwiches short of a picnic", etc. A "quid", by the way, was one pound, the former equivalent of A$2.
6. What chance have you got if it's "Buckley's"?
None – or not much. Although, paradoxically, William Buckley (1776-1856), the origin of the name, who should have had no chance of staying alive when he escaped (he had been convicted and transported) into the bush in 1803, did in fact survive, and, when found, had been living with an Aboriginal tribe for 32 years. Maybe it helped that he was well over six foot tall.
Frank Campbell points out that there are other candidates for the origin, especially Buckley & Nunn, the Melbourne department store, which I didn't know about. The Wikipedia article lists four possibilities.
7. Which political party was formed to "keep the bastards honest"?
The Australian Democrats, formed in 1977, leader Don Chipp (d. 2006).
8. Who is a Sandgroper?
I am, having been born in Western Australia. Do you know the rest of them, Croweaters, and so on? I don't. I don't know who is Gen X either.
9. Who threw a "shrimp on the barbie"?
No-one? Paul Hogan, in a tourism advertisement aimed at Americans, said he would. But I'd never heard an Australian say that until then. We used to eat prawns (but not raw) or yabbies, but not shrimp. Also "crays", not lobster.
10. How many ways can (!) Australians use the toilet? And vomit?
The answer is: many, lots. Barry Humphries collected many of the phrases and his character Barry McKenzie used a large number in his Adventures (1972). "Point Percy at the porcelain". lol. (I didn't ask you to write a list. :)
Garry Gillard | New: 27 December, 2022 | Now: 30 December, 2022