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

My favourite Australian slang term is "sparrow's fart", referring to that early part of the day before the first tinny at breakfast.

And of course when the sons of the sheep stealers go on the big OE they are rude, loud and uncouth. The broads (using every sense of the word) are often far worse.

Here's a few just off the top of my head:
PIE AND DEAD HORSE; a meat* pie with tomato sauce on it.
* the term 'meat' is used loosely here. Actually it's more a kind of thick gravy with bits of gristle here and there. If the government gets to make it's new legislation it'll be about 70% offal. Yummy!1
CARN'; go team. Said while barracking (see above) at the footy. I'n unsure if it's used in all forms of footy, but is always said during an Aussie Rules Match. Derived from 'Come on...' eg. Carn' the Dogs - Go Bulldogs
'COR BLIMEY; Wow. These two words can also be used seperately.
BLIND WHITE MAGGOT; umpire at a footy match.
GEEZE LOUISE; Wow again, but leaning more towards an expression of dismay (the jury's still out)
Well, that ought to keep you busy and this'll amused remembering others when classes get boring.

What about a bee's dick? As in: "Cor...he missed by a bee's dick!"

Very very close.

P.S. "Cor" is usually said coooooooooooor, and you don't really hear the c, it's more like or, but not. You don't say the o's as ooooo, more as or.

Yes. Must be.

And of course there are the mythical Aussie male sayings: I'll pay, my shout, I'm wrong. I'll ask the missus

I live with an australian and she uses the phrase "gone bung" a lot. From what i can tell it means going bad, shonky or rotten (as in having rotted rather than drunk). E.g. He's gone bung = he's gone crazy, or this meat has gone bung = this meat is greener than I expected.

In a similar vein is the expression "Down the crapper" meaning everything has turned to garbage. Garbage, and indeed crapper, can be replaced by other descriptive words, usually vulgar.

apart from saying that I've gone bung, the australian I live with mainly communicates in a series of shrieks, bleats, hoots and whistles. is this normal for the species, or specific to my particular specimen?

Uh, depends. If they're the type that goes to the footy often or hangs around in pubs a lot - then definately yes. For the others it's only some of teh time.

Uh, are you guys Aussies comeing up with these extra phrases or Poms and Yanks?

Uh, depends. If they're the type that goes to the footy often or hangs around in pubs a lot - then definately yes. For the others it's only some of teh time.

Uh, are you guys Aussies coming up with these extra phrases or Poms and Yanks?

Godzone, NZ, the people the Aussies detest almost as much as the Poms except when we both go to Pommyland and join forces against the Poms and all other foreigners. Often in these little escapades we are joined by the South Africans, who at any other time we both detest. It's a hemisphere thing.

Um, I'm a pom I'm afraid, can't you tell? But tell me my dear chap, where did that delightful phase "pom" originate from? Does it have anything to do with wrapping wool around circular pieces of card to make fluffy balls? And why do I feel that having typed the phrase "fluffy balls", I may have given you another euphamism for englishmen?

Hi Mikey!

The only story I've ever heard about the origin of the word "pom" which actually makes sense to me is the "Prisoner Of Mother england" bit - which almost everyone I've ever talked to says is apocryphal, but which nobody can conclusively disprove. "Pommy", of course, is diminutive. I'm not sure what the real origin actually is (I'm not sure anyone else knows, either), but this one sounds good, and lends itself to the bad feeling which the word often accompanies or describes. "Whingeing pom" for example, makes a lot more sense if the person being described is a "prisoner" - either in fact or in sympathy.

I am amazed that no-one has yet made reference to the use of the word used in Australia to describe what we in Britain would refer to as sticky-back plastic - oh, go one, you all know I mean Sellotape. I remember, in a design studio in the mid-seventies, a young female designer - newly-arrived to these shores from the Australian mainland - calling out in all innocence across the office "Has anyone seen the Durex?" Collapse of all concerned...

To "Hit the Toe..." is to leave a place by foot
."a shag on a rock" is the eqivalent to "sticks out like a sore thumb", a "shag" being a bird that habitually stands on a rock in clear view of anyone that's looking, it's shillouette plain to see.

But what about the phrase immortilised in the Aussie film "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" about a group of transvestites on tour in the Aussie outback

A cock in a frock on a rock

pom = POHM = Property Of Her Magesty = what was stamped on all the prison apparal (i.e. everything) shipped to oz by the British

The bee's dick thing is used normally in a game of pool, where the balls get so close but don't fall into the pocket

Well I have heard of the Prisoner of Mother England, but I think yours might be more correct. It's an old thing, so I guess it has lost it's meaning, but still is fun to use

You're not trying to insight a riot are you Mr Looneytunes? You know it's a punishable offence.