"The bush" is a term mostly used in the English vernacular of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, where it is largely synonymous with hinterlands or backwoods. The fauna and flora contained within the bush is typically native to the region, although exotic species may also be present. The expression has been in use in Australia from the earliest years of British settlement, and it has inspired many derivative Australian English terms, such as bush tucker, bush ballad and

bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...

. The term is also widely used in Canada and the American state of Alaska to refer to the large, forested portions of their landscapes.

Usage by country

Australia

The concept of "the bush" has become iconic in Australia. In reference to the landscape, "bush" refers to any sparsely inhabited region, regardless of vegetation. "The bush" in this sense was something that was uniquely Australian and very different from the green European landscapes familiar to many new immigrants. The term "

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

" is also used, but usually in association with the more arid inland areas of Australia. "The bush" also refers to any populated region outside of the major metropolitan areas, including mining and agricultural areas. Consequently, it is not unusual to have a mining town in the desert such as Port Hedland (population 14,000) referred to as "the bush".

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

lived a nomadic life in remote areas of the bush for thousands of years, and during that time developed ways of utilising natural resources for survival, mainly with bush tucker and the spiritual healing of bush medicine. For more than a century after the first British settlement in 1788 onwards, land was granted or sold to settlers, resulting in many generally small but permanent

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular location, place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of Dwelling, dwellings gro ...

s in vast tracts of bush. Closer settlement in Australia has often resulted in fragmentation of the bush, and

bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

, an ever-present hazard in many areas in summer months, have also increased with increasing suburbanisation of the Australian population. Bush poets such as Henry Lawson (1867–1922) and Banjo Paterson (1864–1942) revered the bush as a source of national ideals, as did contemporaneous painters in the Heidelberg School such as

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...

(1856–1931), Arthur Streeton (1867–1943) and Frederick McCubbin (1855–1917). Romanticising the bush in this way through

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

was a big step forward for 19th-century Australians in developing a distinct self-identity. Australians and New Zealanders attach the term "bush" to any number of other entities or activities to describe their rural, country or folk nature through terms such as "bush telegraph", an informal human network through which news is passed on; "bush carpenter", a rough-and-ready builder; "to go bush", to escape from your usual haunts; "bush

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

", " bush music" (Australian folk music); "bush doof"; and

s, 19th-century criminals mainly in the eastern colonies who hid in the bush to escape from authorities.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, ''bush'' primarily refers to areas of native trees rather than exotic forests. However, the word is also used in the Australian sense of anywhere outside urban areas, encompassing grasslands as well as forests. Areas with bush (i.e. native forest) are found in both the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

and the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

, some of it bordering towns and cities, but the majority of bush is found in large national parks. Examples of predominantly bush clad areas are Whanganui National Park, on Taranaki volcano, on which the bush extends in a uniformly circular shape to the surrounding farmland, and Fiordland in the South Island. Much of Stewart Island/Rakiura is bush-covered. In the

, the largest areas of bush cover the main ranges stretching north-northeast from

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

towards East Cape, notably including the Urewera Ranges, and the catchment of the Whanganui River. Significant stands remain in Northland and the ranges running south from the Coromandel Peninsula towards Ruapehu, and isolated remnants cap various volcanoes in Taranaki, the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty and the Hauraki Gulf. From the word comes many phrases including: * bush-bash – to make one's way through the forest, rather than on a track or trail (''cf.'' American English "bushwhack ng, "bushwack ng, or "bush-whack ng). * bush shirt – a woolen shirt or Swanndri, often worn by forest workers. * bush lawyer – the name of a number of native climbing plants or a layman who expounds on legal matters. * bush walk – short day walks ( hikes) in the bush * going bush – to live in the bush for an extended period of time, which may include "living off the land" by means of hunting or fishing. * bushman – Used in the 19th century for New Zealand loggers. The term still stands for someone that lives in the bush as a means of preferable lifestyle.

South Africa

In South Africa, the term () has specific connotations of rural areas which are not open veldt. Generally, it refers to areas in the north of the country that would be called

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. "Going to The Bush" (''Bos toe Gaan'') often refers to going to a game park or game reserve. Areas most commonly referred to as The Bush are the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

and

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

Lowveld, The

Limpopo River The Limpopo River () rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mou ...

Valley, northern

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

or any other similar area of wilderness.

Alaska and Canada

The Bush in Alaska is generally described as any community not "on the road system", making it accessible only by more elaborate transportation. Usage is similar in Canada; it is called ''la brousse'' or colloquially ''le bois'' in

Canadian French Canadian French (, ) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Canadian French'' referred solely to Quebec French and the closely re ...

. In Canada, "the bush" refers to large expanses of forest and swampland which sprawl undeveloped, as well as any forested area.

Related terms

The term "to go bush" has several similar meanings all connected with the supposed wildness of the bush. It can mean to revert to a feral nature (or to "go native"), and it can also mean to deliberately leave normal surroundings and live rough, with connotations of cutting off communication with the outside world – often as a means of evading capture or questioning by the police. The term ''bushwhacker'' is used in Australia and New Zealand to mean someone who spends his or her time in the bush. The verb ''to bushwhack'' has two meanings. One is to cut through heavy brush and other vegetation to pass through tangled country: "We had to do quite a bit of bushwhacking today to clear the new trail." The other meaning is to hide in such areas and then attack unsuspecting passers-by: "We were bushwhacked by the bandits as we passed through their territory and they took all of our money and supplies." The Bushwhackers were also a New Zealand professional wrestling tag team that was inducted into the

WWE Hall of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a List of halls and walks of fame, hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when An ...

class of 2015. In New Zealand, "The Bush" is a nickname for the Wairarapa Bush provincial rugby team. The team was formed by an amalgamation of two earlier teams, Wairarapa and Bush. The latter team had represented an area on the boundaries of the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay which was in former times known as ''Bush'' due to its dense vegetation cover. In the United States,

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

, which is typically played in smaller cities, is sometimes derisively called "''bush league baseball''". In Australia, "

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

or the bush" equates with such terms as "Hollywood or bust" to mean staking total success or failure on one high-risk event. This usage appears in several '' Peanuts'' cartoons, causing Charlie Brown much confusion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bush Geography of Alaska Geography of Australia Geography of New Zealand Geography of South Africa Geography of Canada Rural geography Rural culture in Oceania