...here are some more colourful Aussie words and expressions and their meanings so you, too, can speak Strine.

AFFERBECK LAUDER
pen-name of writer, Alistair Morrison, who wrote a phrase book of Aussie expressions. His pen name is an example – afferbeck lauder, the order of letters in the alphabet when spoken in Strine. (i.e. "alphabetical order")

ANKLE BITER
small child

ARVO
afternoon. Aussies often shorten words, like Aussie! Other examples are bikkie (biscuit), brekkie (breakfast), Chrissie pressie (Christmas present)

BACK OF BOURKE
out of the way place, after Bourke, a town in far west New South Wales

BARBIE
barbecue. Throw a prawn (shrimp) on the barbie – cook them on a barbecue

BIG BIKKIES
a lot of money

BLOKE
a man

BOOZE
alcohol, hence Booze Bus, police van used for breath testing motorists

BLUDGE
to shirk responsibilities or hard work, scrounge or impose upon; bludger - one who does these things

BOTTLE SHOP
liquor store

BUCKLEY'S
slim to no chance

BUDGIE
the smallest of the colourful Australian native parrots

BUDGIE SMUGGLER
a man’s tight-fitting swimming costume. Imagine a budgie tied up in a sock, and you get the picture

CACTUS
not working, dead. (e.g. my computer’s cactus)

COME THE RAW PRAWN
try to fool someone verbally

CHOOK
chicken, fowl

DAKS
trousers. Trakkie daks – track suit pants, sloppy dress

A KANGAROO LOOSE IN THE TOP PADDOCK
to be intellectually impaired

DRONGO
simpleton, stupid person. (See also above)

FORTNIGHT
two weeks. From fourteen nights?

JUMPER
sweater.
Or, a buck jumper is one who rides an unbroken horse

EARBASH
talk too much

FAIR GO
equal chance to do or have something

FLAT OUT
extremely busy, from the expression: flat out like a lizard drinking

LOLLIES
candy; lolly water – sugary drink

LOO
toilet, lavatory.
Note that a dunny is a loo outdoors

OCKER
lower class Aussie, one who acts or sounds this way

PADDOCK
field

POKER MACHINE, POKIES
slot machines

RUBBER
eraser

SEE YOU
Aussie farewell as in see you later, even if you don’t plan to

SHE'LL BE RIGHT
everything will be fine

SNAG
sausage.
Also an unforeseen problem – to hit a snag

SOOK
soft, inoffensive or weak person; sooky – having these qualities

SPIT THE DUMMY
spit out a dummy (pacifier in USA) like a baby, have a tantrum

TAKE AWAY
shop or café selling food to be eaten elsewhere; takeout, food to go. At such places you’re often asked, “Eat here or take away?”

TRUE BLUE
patriotic. Aussies also tend to use nicknames opposite to the quality being named, for instance, a red-headed man will often be nicknamed Blue while someone tall may be dubbed, Shorty.

WOOP WOOP
invented place name for any remote location