Page:Where the Dead Men Lie.djvu/183



1. FROM THE FAR WEST, p. 1

Stanza 1. ‘the Never Never land.’ Or, the Never Never country—a phrase used to denote the more or less desert interior of Australia. Date of first use and origin unknown; but was employed in Queensland about 1860. Somewhat fantastically suggested that it signified the sun-smitten land whither pioneers journeyed and never, never returned.

Stanza 3. ‘piker.’ An old wild bullock or cow—so called from its ill-tempered habit of charging horsemen, as a piker? The lowered horns at the charge do suggest pike-heads.

Stanza 6. ‘the saltbush’ sickly shade.' Saltbush is the vernacular name of a salinous shrub of the order chenopodiaceae, which grows freely on the arid plains of central Australia, often where other vegetation is scarce or absent. There are many species, some of which are so eagerly eaten by sheep and cattle that they are fast disappearing. The plant's average height is from four to twelve feet, and most species throw little or no shade. Boake probably refers to atriplex vesicaria or halimoides.

2. JACK'S LAST MUSTER, p. 4.

Stanza 7. ‘That C O B gray one’ C O B was one of the cattle brands of Cobb and Co.—a pastoral and coaching firm whose name is familiar throughout the east Australian interior. In verse 16 Boake sounds the letters together as Cobb.

Stanza 9. ‘yellowtop.’ Vernacular for panicum flavidum, or yellow-flowered panick grass,' a valuable perennial grass found over a large area of interior eastern Australia.