Australia Literature and Language

This is a line from an Australian song, simply talking about the beauty of living a simple life in the Australian bush, among the gum trees, in an old style wooden house with a verandah on the front where the singer can just sit and watch the world go by.

The song is called Home Among the Gum Trees.

Details of the lyrics can be found at the related weblink below.

'Avo' is short for afternoon. It is pronounced "arvo".

Many Australians have a tendency to shorten some words; rather than say, "I'll see you this afternoon", they might say, "I'll see you this avo."

I think diapers anytime should be acceptible, I think it would be much less a distraction to just wear them to school or work. Provisions would have to be made for times and places to change but overall I think it would offer another solution to bathroom breaks.
So you don't have to get in trouble.

Bathrooms at school are not nice to go to. The kids do not flush the toilets so the kids who use that toilets next get a surprise. The people who clean the bathrooms go and tell the principal.

I have to wear diapers in school. I dont have a choice. If you can use the toilet then do so.

A billabong is a large pond that is formed when a river or creek changes direction, and the billabong is cut off from the main stream of water.

A billabong is not just any pond of water or watering hole; it is a waterhole along a creek.

If you read the lyrics carefully, you will see the clear allusions to the war. Remembrance Day is about remembering those fallen in war. In particular, note the following lines:

Then in 1915, my country said son, It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done.

So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, and they marched me away to the war.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda, as the ship pulled away from the quay

And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears, we sailed off for Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day, how our blood stained the sand and the water

And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.

Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed himself well. He shower'd us with bullets,

And he rained us with shell. And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell

Nearly blew us right back to Australia.

The song goes on to tell what it was like in the trenches, and then the quick evacuation out of Gallipoli. And in the end, the song recalls the ANZAC parades, and how slowly, the men who were in World War 1, have disappeared with the passing of time. The song reminds us "Lest We Forget".

And so now every April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades pass before me.

And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, reviving old dreams of past glories

And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war

And the young people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda, and the old men still answer the call,

But as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one will march there at all.