The Demise of Vibrancy in Aussie English

[pmccarthy]

That’s enough porkies for one thread.

[willedoo]

On 14/01/2023 at 4:50 PM, facthunter said:

You've part answered something I wondered about. The F-27 had plastic easily removed hub caps on the yokes and pilot's used to send messages by placing notes there. One Used to say KL fuCK$ Spiders  This was in 1969 if that date/period helps..  Nev 

It's similar to an old oil industry saying, if you swap out the spiders for dogs. Stuffing around or wasting time is f'ing the dog. Someone who does it all the time f's dogs or is a dog f'er. It was more in use in the drilling sector, but crossed into other branches of the industry. Australian oil patch slang (and I assume worldwide) comes from the Americans who came out here in the early 60's and kickstarted exploration here. A lot of it would be incomprehensible to anyone outside the industry.

[onetrack]

I believe the first American oil drillers arrived at Rough Range, adjacent to Exmouth Gulf, and just S of where Learmonth Aeodrome is today, in mid-1953.

 

I can recall reading the story of this first oil-drilling exercise in Australia, and the Aussies were total greenhorns to oil drilling and the Americans taught them everything.

 

The story went there were plenty of cleanskin steers in the Rough Range area, and the Aussies were adept at providing a constant supply of high quality beef to the drillers.

The beef was apparently greatly appreciated by the Americans -  as apparently even back then, beef was expensive in the U.S., and their primary diet back home, was chicken.

 

https://www.publish.csiro.au/AJ/AJ78001

 

http://www.energyglobalnews.com/1955-australias-first-commercial-oil-at-rough-range/

 

https://exhibitions.slwa.wa.gov.au/s/mewa/item/209

 

https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1963783_2

[nomadpete]

23 hours ago, old man emu said:

Didn't know you were a swineherd.

Am I to get the blame for this thread drift, too?

 

Discrimination, I say!

[old man emu]

17 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Am I to get the blame for this thread drift, too? Discrimination, I say!

Nah! The drift here is the result of a team of experienced practitioners working in unison. Sort of like the Argonauts

 Fifty mighty Argonauts, bending to the oars
Today will go adventuring to yet uncharted shores

         

[nomadpete]

Therein lies the root of my discontent. Mum didn't let me join the Argonauts. So I have spent a lifetime in the wilderness of discrimination shared by many minorities.

 

But she did send me to sunday school. Somehow that didn't make up for it.

 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by nomadpete

[facthunter]

Remember the fella who used to put out Oil well fires with dynamite. Red Adair wasn't it?  Nev

[pmccarthy]

He was once blown to a ridiculous height, 50 feet or more, and survived.

[old man emu]

1 minute ago, pmccarthy said:

He was once blown to a ridiculous height, 50 feet or more, and survived.

No. That was his New Zealand mate, Roman Kendall.