h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Regarding a few sentences/phrases in the entry A127478 'Australian Slang':

Barbie - "("I'll throw some shrimp on the barbie")" - Australians call 'shrimp' 'prawns', despite what the famous advertising campaign featuring Paul Hogan would have you believe. And, I might add, at the many barbies I've attended no one has ever bbq'd a prawn. Many other meats and such, but never prawns.

Boogie board - also known as body boards, and derisively, esky lids.

Dag - alas, this entry is woefully small for such a useful word Calling someone daggy usually implies they're unfashionable, out-of-touch, or dorky. It isn't necessarily an insult though, and is usually used affectionately.

Galah - I've just consulted the Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds to confirm that galahs aren't migratory - I'd say that idea is an urban myth. There are two possible derivations of 'galah' meaning someone behaving in a silly manner; 1, galahs are playful parrots that can often be seen swinging on branches/power lines purely for fun, and 2, there is a Malaysian/Indonesian word 'gila' which has the same meaning and a similar pronunciation.

Icy pole - You might add 'Ice block' to this entry too, as it means the same thing.

Mickey Mouse - probably rhyming slang for 'grouse' which means very good, as you've written.

Vedgies - usually just spelt vegies.

These are a couple more that come to mind:

Sydneysider - a resident of sydney

Crow-eater - a South Australian

Cheers,

Snaf, aka Researcher no 52930

"Spit the Dummy" (Oz word for pacifier) - to lose your temper/lose control (aka "do your nana") - cf. The Hoodoo Gurus Final Tour.

Re: Mickey Mouse . . . not sure if it's just me (now I'm starting to wonder!) but I've also heard and used this expression to mean shoddy and small time or insubstantial eg. that real estate agency is a bit of a Mickey Mouse operation

And I've never used it to mean anything good!! (maybe I've been insulting people all this time, and they haven't even been aware of it!) Or maybe it's a WA thing? (just a theory!)

These are close to my heart:

MEXICAN: often used by a New South Welshman to describe a Victorian (ie. south of the border)

CHOKKA/CHOKKA BLOCK: to describe something full or stuffed to capacity; brimming over. "I was glad to get out of the theatre, it was chokka".

CACTUS: to describe something broken or malfunctioning, as in "The dunny's chokka block, mate, she's cactus"

GOOG: egg

FULL AS A GOOG: drunk

FULL AS A BOOT: drunk

JOEY BLAKE: snake

MUNCHIE: shark

How about:

'S**t a brick!' - General exclamation
'ropable' - angry ("I'm absolutely ropable!")

"It'd blow the nuts off a tractor" ie.."It's very windy today"
or the derivative:
"It'd freeze the nuts off a tractor" ie.. "It's very cold"

or another one:

"He/She could eat an apple through a tennis racquet" ie.. "The person has buck teeth"

"Like a goat looking through a ball of string" ie.. "The person is squinting"