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Swagman
A swagman (also called a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag. The term originated in Australia in the 19th century and was later used in New Zealand. Swagmen were particularly common in Australia during times of economic uncertainty, such as the 1890s and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many unemployed men travelled the rural areas of Australia on foot, their few meagre possessions rolled up and carried in their swag. Their swag was frequently referred to as "Matilda", hence Waltzing Matilda refers to walking with their swag. Typically, they would seek work in farms and towns they travelled through, and in many cases the farmers, if no permanent work was available, would provide food and shelter in return for some menial task. The figure of the "jolly swagman", represented most famously in Banjo Paterson's bush poem "Waltzing Matilda", became a folk hero in 19th-century Aust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waltzing Matilda
"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back.''Oxford English Dictionary'', draft revision March 2001. "Matilda, n." The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or " swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (grazier), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong ( watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site. The original lyrics were written in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and lyrics, altered by Marie Cowan, were first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swag (bedroll)
In Australia, a swag is a portable sleeping unit. It is normally a bundle of belongings rolled in a traditional fashion to be carried by a foot traveller in the bush. Before motor transport was common, foot travel over long distances was essential to agriculture in the Australian bush. It is sometimes referred to as a "backpack bed". Swags have been carried by shearers, miners, the unemployed, and many others, some of whom would have been happy to have been called swagmen and some not. History In the early 1800s, the term ''swag'' was used by British thieves to describe any amount of stolen goods. One definition given in Francis Grose's 1811 ''Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' is "any booty you have lately obtained,.... To carry the swag is to be the bearer of the stolen goods to a place of safety." James Hardy Vaux, a convict in Australia, used the term for similar purposes in his memoirs written in 1812 and published in 1819. By the 1830s, the term in Australia had transferr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squatter (pastoral)
Squatting is a historical Australian term that referred to someone who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, squatters became recognised by the colonial government as owning the land by being the first (and often the only) European settlers in the area. Eventually, the term "squattocracy", a play on "aristocracy", came into usage to refer to squatters and the social and political power they possessed. Evolution of meaning The term 'squatter' derives from its English usage as a term of contempt for a person who had taken up residence at a place without having legal claim. The use of 'squatter' in the early years of British settlement of Australia had a similar connotation, referring primarily to a person who had 'squatted' on Aboriginal land for pastoral or other purposes. In its early derogatory context the term was often applied to the illegitimate occupation of land by ticket-of-leave convicts o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep Shearing
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a ''shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or "sheared", depending upon dialect). The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes more than 3,000 sheep per day. Sheep are shorn in all seasons, depending on the climate, management requirements and the availability of a woolclasser and shearers. Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing in the warmer months, but consideration is typically made as to the welfare of the lambs by not shearing during cold climate winters. However, in high country regions, pre lamb shearing encourages ewes to seek shelter among the hillsides so that newborn lambs aren't completely exposed to the elements. Shorn sheep tolerate frosts well, but young sheep especially will suffer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Station (Australian Agriculture)
In Australia, a station is a large landholding used for producing livestock, predominantly cattle or sheep, that needs an extensive range of grazing land. The owner of a station is called a pastoralist or a grazier, corresponding to the North American term " rancher". Originally ''station'' referred to the homestead – the owner's house and associated outbuildings of a pastoral property, but it now generally refers to the whole holding. Stations in Australia are on Crown land pastoral leases, and may also be known more specifically as sheep stations or cattle stations, as most are stock-specific, dependent upon the region and rainfall. If they are very large, they may also have a subsidiary homestead, known as an outstation. Sizes Sheep and cattle stations can be thousands of square kilometres in area, with the nearest neighbour being hundreds of kilometres away. Anna Creek Station in South Australia is the world's largest working cattle station. It is roughly ; much la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep Station
A sheep station is a large property (station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South Island. These properties may be thousands of square kilometres in size and run low stocking rates to be able to sustainably provide enough feed and water for the stock. In Australia, the owner of a sheep station may be called a pastoralist, grazier; or formerly, a squatter (as in "Waltzing Matilda"), when their sheep grazing land was referred to as a sheep run. History Sheep stations and sheep husbandry began in Australia when the British colonisers started raising sheep in 1788 at Sydney Cove. Improvements and facilities In the Australian and New Zealand context, shearing involves an annual muster of sheep to be shorn, and the shearing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canowie Station
Canowie or Canowie Station is a pastoral lease located about north west of Hallett and south west of Terowie in the state of South Australia. William Warwick was appointed as manager of the property up until 1853 when he left to develop his own run, Holowiliena Station. Thomas Goode was made the manager of Canowie in about 1858. Canowie station is situated midway between Hallett and Jamestown in an amphitheatre of green bald hills, which surround it on the western side, the eastern opening out into a broad valley. The country around is bare of timber, with the exception of plantations of various kinds of eucalypt planted around 1880. The estate consisted principally of rich land, well suited for agriculture, about 60,000 acres in extent, freehold, and depastured 60,000 sheep and about 1000 pure Shorthorn cattle. This article goes into the history of Canowie stud animals in considerable detail. William Sanders acquired an interest in Canowie in 1869 along with his partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elderly Swagman
Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage which stands for Old Age Pensioner), seniors, senior citizens (American usage), older adults (in the social sciences), and the elders (in many cultures). Elderly people often have limited regenerative abilities and are more susceptible to AIDS, herpes, hemorrhoids, and other illnesses than younger adults. A number of other disciplines and domains concern the aging and the aged, such as organic processes of aging (senescence), medical studies of the aging process (gerontology), diseases that afflict older adults ( geriatrics), technology to support the aging society (gerontechnology), or leisure and sport activities adapted to older people, such as senior sport. The elderly face various social issues concerning retirement, loneliness, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federation Of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia. The colonies of Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but they decided not to join the federation. Following federation, the six colonies that united to form the Commonwealth of Australia as states kept the systems of government (and the bicameral legislatures) that they had developed as separate colonies, but they also agreed to have a federal government that was responsible for matters concerning the whole nation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia. The efforts to bring about federation in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
