A Vote (because I am too tired for a proper post)

I promised more piccies from the Grampians.

Well once again I have returned with 1,000s of photos.

We got home after four hours on the highway which followed a long day in the Grampians. So I am as we Aussies say buggered! (Which means tired in Aussie lingo).

So rather than making a decision I am asking you, my good readers, to decide which do I post about first? (NO votes for all of the above, I have way too much to fit in one post!)

Ancient Aboriginal rock art:Wonderful waterfalls:Or Beautiful Wild flowers:

Pound Bend and a (Not) Drinking Lizard

More on the subject of lizards (drinking or otherwise) in a moment.

I’m not going to post any more of our Tassie trip today. Instead I’m going to yarn about a walk Deb and I did a couple of weeks ago.

A few weeks ago Deb and I had a Sunday to kill. We had a lazy lunch at a café we frequent called ‘Wild Wombat’. Then we drove to a Melbourne suburb called Warrandyte for a walk along a stretch of the Yarra River.You wouldn’t think you were in a suburb of Melbourne - here the river meanders through a number of bush reserves.
The lower Yarra is often very brown, but this stretch is usually clear. This muddy look is from all the rain we have had this summer.

We followed these rough stairs down to the river’s edge.There at the bottom about half of the river’s flow seems to be making its way towards the cliff face.I scrambled to the corner to show you why. Meet the “Pound Bend Tunnel”.The tunnel is an artefact of the gold rush period in the 1870s. Miners diverted the river so they could get access to the river bed to search for alluvial gold.
The faint circle in the middle of the piccie is from a stray beam of sunlight filtering down from above and catching my camera lens.

Then as I turned to look back up the river… I noticed a local was checking me out. Can you see?This guy is a Golden Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii) I think he/she is very handsome. He/she is a medium sized member of this species probably about 20cm (8in) long.
They are one of around 400 species of skink lizards native to Oz (we have about 800 lizard species in all).
Now speaking of lizards.
Last Thursday I challenged you to guess what the slang term ‘flat out like a lizard drinking’ meant.
The key to the phrase is simply in the first two words ‘flat out’. So for most Aussies ‘flat out like a lizard drinking’ means ‘very busy’. Fair dinkum!

Al explains the term “drongo”

A week or two ago I popped by Christine’s Blog "What I See When I Walk Out"

I responded to a post in which she had said she had been embarrassed by agreeing and I then went on to say “You feel like such a drongo when…”

Without thinking I inserted a word that might not mean anything to people outside Oz. Christine commented back “great word, drongo. Never heard it before - is it an Oz word, I wonder?”

Now to be strictly above board I do not use a huge amount of Aussie idiom in my daily language. But sometimes words that are very common place here will catch someone from overseas as odd or simply unintelligible.

So what is a “drongo”? A bird watcher might tell you a drongo is any of a particular family of birds.

But an Aussie will tell you “Drongo” means a "silly person", "a dope" or an "an idiot".
By the way a “Galah” is not only a common Aussie parrot but also means the same thing as “Drongo”.

Aussie language is quite colourful with a lot of slang that is fairly unique. One thing that is worth noting is that sometimes words have a very different meaning in Oz to elsewhere.

Perhaps the best example is “bastard”. In most of the world bastard is an extremely derogatory term.
In Oz bastard is usually a term of endearment. I might for example (in fact I have) greet a friend by saying “it’s good to see you, you old bastard.”
Or you might say of a mutual acquaintance “he’s an old bastard” meaning “I like him.”
Non-natives beware! A lot depends on the tone of delivery, bastard can also have exactly the same meaning as overseas. I might also say of someone “he’s an old bastard” meaning I hated someone.

The difference? My intonation nothing else.

A last word about bastards, calling someone “a bit of a bastard” is always an insult.

Other words can have also very different meanings. “Root” is not only part of a tree in Oz, it also means “sexual intercourse” (basically “fuck”).

So when an American says “I’m rooting for you” I try not to chuckle. I understand what is meant but it still sounds odd to an Aussie ear. An Aussie would say “I’m barracking for…” meaning offering support for a team in the same way an American would “Root.”

Another example is “bloody” usually bloody in Oz simply means “very”. So “she was bloody sick” would literally translate as “she was very ill.” While “bloody hard” is “very difficult” and "bloody oath' means "very true".

So there you go, a bloody brief lesson in fair dinkum Strine!

Does anyone want to guess what might be meant by “Flat out like a lizard drinking”?
A clue: it isn’t rude

Aussies please don’t spoil the game.
Don’t be shonky by looking it up on the internet!

To get you in the mood a piccie from last weekend.

Port Welshpool

A Tinny at the Footy

We had a busy weekend. Mon, my sister-in-law (Deb’s sister), her husband and two young children came down from Queensland to visit us.
Mon has never been to Melbourne (or for that matter Victoria) before, so we had an eventful couple of days operating as tour guides.

Because of our visitors, I arranged the roster to give myself the day off yesterday.
For those in the know, I did not ‘chuck a sickie’.
We took my dearly beloved’s rellies to the zoo.

A brief note about Oz English ‘rellies’ are relatives.
Aussies have a habit of shortening many words or phrases by dropping syllables and/or substituting ‘ie’ or ‘y’ at the end.

So: a sick day becomes a ‘sickie’; a barbeque becomes a ‘barbie’; a beer tin becomes a ‘tinny’.

An aluminium dingy isn’t a ‘dingy’ as would be logical it is a ‘tinny’ as well. So to say: ‘I drank a few tinnies while at sea in a tinny”, would make perfect sense to an Aussie.

Another small point: Australians call Australia ‘Oz’ because we pronounce ‘Aussie’ as ‘Ozzie’. When most Americans say ‘Aussie’ it sounds like ‘Arsey’ to our ear which means something entirely different. An ‘arse’ is a butt, I believe ‘arsey’ means ‘unpleasant’ in British English, but in Oz English it means ‘lucky’

As to our beloved mother country, many Aussies (or is that Ozzies) following our tradition of dropping syllables now say not “Aust-ra-li-a” but rather ‘Ah-stray-ya’ or for the verbally lazy ‘Stray-ya’.

While I am rambling about Oz language I should mention briefly another word much beloved by many Aussies.

Footy.

I am largely mentioning footy because of a conversation I had with Lisa of Lit and Life.

What is Footy you might ask? Well following the rules of Oz grammar it is an abbreviation of “Football”.

“Ah,” they say, “that makes perfect sense.”

Unfortunately it doesn’t, there are four widely played codes of football in Oz. The word ‘Footy’ has differing meanings across the country.

Perhaps foolishly I will attempt to explain.

The four major codes of football in Australia are:

Soccer: this international game is usually called ‘football’ in most of the world. Not many Aussies would call Soccer ‘footy’. However, fans of this sport are attempting to claim the word ‘football’ exclusively for their game and if they are successful (which is probably unlikely) Soccer would no doubt become ‘footy’.

Rugby Union: The international version of Rugby. ‘Union’ is a minority sport in Oz. But if you go to a private school odds are when you say ‘footy’ you mean ‘Union.’

Rugby League: A version of Rugby played widely in the North East of Oz (and in New Zealand). If you come from New South Wales (NSW), or Queensland (QLD)it is expected that you believe ‘League is the one true footy.’

Of course if you come from the rest of the country, Victoria (VIC), South Australia (SA), The Northern Territory (NT), Western Australia (WA) or Tasmania (TAS) there is only one sport. Australian Rules Football sometimes called ‘Aussie Rules’ but in its home states simply ‘footy’.

American Football is played by a tiny minority of people in Oz. It is never called ‘footy’ rather it is usually called, well as is obvious, ‘American Football’ or sometimes ‘Gridiron’.

Being an adoptee of the state of Victoria (although once a Queenslander always a Queenslander) I should say a bit about the home grown ‘footy’ Aussie Rules.

Australian Rules Football is akin to a national religion in Victoria. It is incredibly popular. I think this popularity stems from the fact that it is not only a traditional game here, but it is incredibly fast. For example the 2009 Grand Final score was Geelong Cats 80, beating Saint Kilda 68, and that was considered a fairly low scoring game!

I include a link to some footage of the 2009 Grand Final. That should make Lisa happy being a Cats supporter!

Now I have waxed lyrical about Language and Footy for so long that I have run out of time to do what originally intended.

So next time: The cuteness factor.

Around the Bend

Or should that be around the corner.
Since the very hot weather of a few days ago temperatures have moderated. Out here on Melbourne’s northern fringes we’ve been having balmy 26° - 28°C days. This has induced us to go walking around our neighbourhood in the evenings.

We live in a new housing development, the downside is that we are part of continued urban sprawl. The upside is that these newer estates are leaving patches of open space and managing some of their impacts sensibly. One feature of this new thinking is capturing stormwater in artificial wetlands.

This has a double benefit: first new roads and rooftops create significant runoff which causes erosion and silting of streams if the extra water is not managed; second the wetlands are being thoughtfully developed and are becoming havens for wildlife that is otherwise displaced.

Just down our road is one of these new wetlands and the other day we went there for a stroll.

In the spirit of show and tell here are some of the wild creatures we saw.

First was a female Chestnut Teal. Unfortunately she was very shy and this was the best shot I could get of her.
These ducks are quite common, however the drought of recent years has slashed their numbers. In 2008 duck hunting season was abandoned, in 2009 there was a limited season. Debate is raging at the moment as to whether there should be a 2010 season. Die hard environmentalists argue falling waterfowl numbers and current conditions should lead to an indefinite halt to duck hunting. Some hunters argue this is just an attempt to ban what they see as a legitimate sport and a tradition going back generations.

In this case I am on the side of the ducks. While it is kind of possible to build a case for hunting ducks in a limited way, in normal seasons, those arguments go out the window with recent environmental conditions. Also, I have a moral objection to hunting most native species. Many are under terrible pressure since European settlement and in my view they have at least as much right to be here as we do.

Any way I am moving away from my point, which was the wildlife we saw in our neighbourhood. As we walked the evening was quite still, but obviously the wind up higher was fierce as attested by these clouds. The wind was tearing them apart as we watched.Then we came across this fellow hunting along the bank, a White Faced Heron. I love these guys they are so graceful. Normally they are quite shy, but this one must be a bit more used to people. After checking me out s/he went back to hunting.After I took far too many shots of the heron we turned for home.

As we walked, we heard an awful racket coming from some dead trees.
As an Aussie would put it: “It sounded like a mob of flaming galahs!”

Which in this case was close to the mark.

These are Galahs, the bird on the right is a fledgling about 90% grown. S/he was begging mum (or dad, it is hard to tell males and females apart) for a feed. I love galahs, like most parrots they are intelligent beautiful birds.

The term galah is used derisively in Oz. Ironically, given these birds intelligence, to say “you’re a bloody galah!” is to accuse someone of being a real idiot.

I’m getting distracted again. Mum (or dad) gave junior a mouthful, and hopped across to a nearby branch. Junior followed but there was already another chick there.
Galahs often hatch two chicks and sometimes as many as five, but all too often only one will survive to adulthood (if any). So these parents have had a good season.

Anyway junior continued to carry on like a flaming galah, demanding mum (or dad) continue feeding it.
This had one nice side affect as junior, while grumbling, spread out its wings allowing me to get this rather nice shot.