TODAY'S LESSON IN OZ-SPEAK

With the risk of boring you rigid I thought I should explain one more Aussie term.

If you know an Aussie you'll know that they often talk about the "bush".

Now this is not a single plant they are talking about . It's a place!

The bush can be found outside any town or city where the landscape is as it always has been without any interference from European settlement.

It's usually a wooded area, somewhere between a scrubland and a forest.

Generally the soil is dry and nitrogen-poor and is mostly without grass or sparsely covered with dry spindly brown grass. 

Woody shrubs and bushes are dotted around and overhead there is a sparse canapy of eucalypts trees.

There are usually lots of wattle trees mixed among the eucalyptus - different varieties in different areas.

Sometimes the bush is pretty but often it is just dry and brown and scraggly but it is full of life -birds, kangaroos, lizards, possoms, snakes, spiders and bugs of all types.

The bush is something that is uniquely Australian and very different to green European landscapes.

From the word "bush"come many phrases, including:

* bush-bash – to make one’s way through the bush, rather than on a track.

* bush lawyer- a layman who expounds on legal matters..

* bush walk - short day walks through the countryside

* 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.

* beating around the bush - to avoid answering a question; to stall; to waste time.

* bush telegraph - the way in which people quickly pass important information to other people, especially by talking

There ends today's lecture!!

Sorry to carry on ........ and on ....... and on..........

Cheers.