a bit thing: particular. If someone is a bit thing about how they dress it means they are particular about their attire.

amari: grandfather. A word used by Aboriginal people in the Roper area of the Northern Territory.

ambo: a paramedic (from ambulance)

arse: ass

bickie: short for biscuit, the Australian word for cookie

biscuit: cookie

bitumen: can mean either a paved (sealed) road or the black substance (usually asphalt) used to pave (seal) the road

bloke: guy, man

blue heeler: an Australian cattle dog

boong: racist term for an Australian Aboriginal person

bottlebrush: a tree or shrub with spikes of brightly coloured flowers

Bronze Medallion: system of lifesaving certificates. Almost every school in Australia teaches its students how to swim and how to rescue people if they get into trouble in the water.

bugger: damn. The thing you say when you stub your toe and don't want to be toorude.

bunyip: creature of Aboriginal legend, haunts swamps and billabongs (waterholes that only exist during the rainy season)

cardie: short for cardigan

chips: like french fries, only better

chop, not much: not very good; to not be much chop at something means you're crap at it

chunder: vomit

countryman: an Aboriginal person. A word used by some Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

croc: short for crocodile

crook: bad, dodgy

dag: a dag is someone lacking in social graces, someone who is eccentric and doesn't fit in. The closest U.S. approximation is nerd, but a dag doesn't necessarily know a thing about computers or mathematics or science.

daggy: adjective from of "dag"

dob in or dob on: to tell on. For example: "I'll dob you in if you eat all those cakes."

dodgy: sketchy

dog’s breakfast: a mess, a disaster. To make a dog’s breakfast out of something is to really mess it up.

drongo: someone who’s not very bright

doona: comforter

dunny: toilet

echidna:a spiny anteater

Emoh Ruo: Our Home spelled backward, a common Australian name for your house

esky: cooler, the thing you keep things cold in if you're going on a picnic

flat out like a lizard drinking: busy, in a hurry

footie: In New South Wales and Queensland means Rugby League (Rugby Union is known as Rugby); in the rest of the country usually means AFL (Australian Football League, popularly known as Aussie Rules).

four-wheel drive: SUV

get on: be friendly with. For example, "Those two don't get on" means that they aren't friends.

Gregory's: a brand of street directory common in New South Wales (the most populous state in Australia, of which Sydney is the capital)

grouse: Excellent, wonderful, although it can also be a verb meaning to complain, as in, "I wish you'd stop grousing about everything."

gypsy cab: an unlicensed cab

hessian: burlap

H. S. C.: Higher School Certificate, the final set of exams in high school in most parts of Australia

Iced VoVos: a brand of sweet bickie

jack of: to be jack of something means that you’re sick of it

jumper: sweater

'ken hell: an expression of annoyance

knackered: very tired, exhausted

lend, having a: making fun of, mocking

Libs: abbreviation of the Liberal Party of Australia, which despite the name, is the conservative party.

lift: elevator

li-lo: a blowup rubber mattress

loo: toilet

lolly: candy. The plural is lollies. Although "losing your lolly" means losing your temper.

mad: In Australia it means crazy; in the United States, angry.

mum: mom

munanga: white person. A word used by Aboriginal people in the Roper area of the Northern Territory.

Pop Rocks: a hard American candy (lolly) made with carbon dioxide bubbles. As it melts in your mouth, it feels like it's exploding. Very strange stuff.

porkies: lies

poxy: unpleasant, crappy or annoying

pram: stroller

recce: from the military term reconnaissance, meaning to look around, check out thoroughly

ropeable: angry, as in "fit to be tied"

rubber: in Australia means eraser; in the United States, condom

sambo: sandwich

Shire, the: Sutherland Shire, a district of Sydney that’s a long way from the city

skerrick:a very small amount

skink: a small lizard with a long body

slab:a case of two dozen cans or bottles of beer

sloppy joe: a cotton, fleece-lined sweater

sossi: sausage

spag bol:spaghetti bolognese

spinifex:spiky grass that grows in the desert

sticky beak: a person who always sticks their nose into other people's business

stinger: poisonous jellyfish

stoush: fight, brawl, rumble

ta: thank you

thongs: flip-flops

Tim Tam: a chocolate-filled, chocolate-covered bickie

tracky-dacks: track pants

tucker: food

Uluru: a huge rock formation in central Australia, formerly known as Ayer's Rock

unco: short for uncoordinated. Someone who’s unco isn’t much chop at sports or juggling. For some unco types, even standing can be a challenge. Your humble author has been known to be unco, though only since infancy.

Violet Crumble: a brand of candy bar made of honeycomb coated with chocolate

wanker: poseur

washer: washcloth

watarah: a shrub or small tree with brilliant red-coloured flowers

wattle: a large shrub or tree with white or yellow flower clusters

willi-willi: dust devil

Winnies:short for Winfield’s, a brand of cigarette

white man place: city

widdershins: counterclockwise

witchetty grubs: delicious, fat, white, wood-boring grubs