Throughout Oz there's a saying, "Blind Freddy could have seen that" (when something self evident was missed, visually or in conversation).

Found out yesterday (thankyou News Radio) that this is attributed to a blind vagabond in Sydney during the 20's who was renowned for his ability to successfully negotiate city crowds.

The author of the radio segment lamented that this saying appears to be dying out and expressed his hope that other great strinisms such as "furphy" (noun,= myth) are not lost. I agree and hope you all do as well - let's do our bit to hold back the tide of US English and preserve these excellent words/terms.

What else is on the endangered list?

stales

(An English observer sneaks in:)

-- Once around her, twice around the Showgrounds.

-- You wouldn't read about it in Pix.

-- stickybeak

-- dunny

Greetings. I once lived in Australia. My granddad used to say 'That's the end of the penny section', meaning 'I've had enough'/ 'I'm at the end of my tether'.
I'm not sure whether this is exclusively Australian though.

Grueße an euch alle!

I agree and hope you all do as well - let's do our bit to hold back the tide of US English and preserve these excellent words/terms.

Surely you don't attribute this to American English. There are plenty of old American slang terms that have gone out of use. It's simply natural with this "living" language that we keep talking about.

I haven't heard 'bonzer' [= good, excellent] for many years. Sidney Baker's 'The drum" also has the derivatives: bontoger, bontogerino, bonzerino, bonziorie and bonzo.

paulb says I haven't heard 'bonzer' [= good, excellent] for many years. Sidney Baker's 'The drum" also has the derivatives: bontoger, bontogerino, bonzerino, bonziorie and bonzo.

I was on a station near (within 50 miles) of Toowoomba (in Queensland for northerners) a year ago, and the head jackeroo was watching some cattle being herded into a pen for drenching. He was checking the ear tags off on a tick sheet, and as each beast went through the gate he ticked, and said "Bonzer...20!" or whatever the tag number was.

So, maybe it's dying, but it's not yet dead ... perhaps it's a local casualty like the Tasmanian Tiger (or Devil, I never can remember which is which!).

It's the tiger that's gone, CapK -- the last one died in Hobart Zoo in the mid-'30s. There's some film of it in its enclosure.

Tasmanian Devils are still around, but not the basketball team of the same name which is now extinct.

It's the tiger that's gone, CapK -- the last one died in Hobart Zoo in the mid-'30s. There's some film of it in its enclosure

I've seen that film--poor little thing. Tragic. I'd better stop, or I'll go on for pages about how I feel about animals being mistreated.

Jackie opined: . I'd better stop, or I'll go on for pages about how I feel about animals being mistreated.

I'll put you in touch with Saffie, our keeshond. She's of the opinion she's totally mistreated, especially when we call her "Shitfer". She's formally requested a single-key hotline connection to the SPCA to report us whenever she feels like it. The two of you can swap notes ...