On the wallaby track

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Meaning

Travelling the country on foot in search of work or subsistence. Historical Australian slang. It evokes itinerant labour and hardship; modern use is usually retrospective. Regional use: Australian English.

Origin

Australian English first used 'wallaby track' literally for an animal path in J. L. Stokes's Discoveries in Australia in 1846. By 1849, an Adelaide periodical used 'on the wallaby track' for people travelling through the bush, especially in search of seasonal work. Later writers and dictionaries associated the phrase closely with itinerant workers and swagmen. The idiom therefore grew by transferring the animal-track image to a human route, not from a requirement to follow an actual wallaby.

Research Sources

  1. Austral English: Wallaby track, on the Project Gutenberg edition of Edward E. Morris's 1898 dictionary
  2. Previous Find of the Month, January 2019 ArchivesACT
  3. Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms: on the wallaby Australian National Dictionary Centre, Australian National University

Variants

  • On the wallaby
  • Out on the wallaby
  • Go on the wallaby

Usage Examples

  • After the shearing ended, three hands went on the wallaby track looking for harvest work.
  • He spent the winter out on the wallaby with his blanket and billy.
  • The closing mine put half the camp on the wallaby.

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