Raw Prawns and Drinking Lizards Quiz

Answer: A headache powder

Bex was a brand of powdered painkiller sold in a yellow box. Each dose was wrapped in a paper envelope and tasted just dreadful.

Answer: Yes

The last Bondi tram ran on Sunday, February 18th, 1960. The reference to "shooting through" came from the fact that there was a long portion of the route with no pick up or set down and the driver could really gather speed. To leave in haste is one meaning of this colloquialism but there is also an earlier reference from World War Two where to shoot through like a Bondi tram meant to go absent without leave.

Answer: An Australian cricket cap

Getting a "baggy green" cap means you have been selected to play for the Australian test cricket team. The most highly prized baggy green of all was Sir Donald Bradman's cap. It sold at auction in 2003 for $AU425,000.

Answer: A chamber pot

That's right. There was NO indoor sewerage plumbing in most of country Australia in the 1950s and so a chamber pot or pottie was a necessity. The word gazunder comes immediately from the fact that the pot "goesunder" the bed. This term was also widely used in other parts of the world with similar lack of indoor plumbing.

Answer: Trying to delude someone who is working hard

"Coming the raw prawn" means to try and fool or delude someone. "Going flat out like a lizard drinking" means someone is working at top speed. The fact that a drinking lizard, while essentially flat, is certainly not going at any speed at all is testament to the wry Aussie sense of humour. The reference to raw prawns is most likely something that is difficult to swallow.

Answer: To distract a player

Chewie is a typical Australian diminutive for chewing gum. We Aussies shorten or lengthen any word we can. Presents will become pressies, Christmas will be Chrissie and a short name like Kim will always become Kimmy. Enough distraction! Calling out "chewie on your boot" is an attempt to distract a football player about to take a kick.

This will not be construed as helpful unless the player is on the opposing team.

Answer: Poppy

The "tall poppy syndrome" is a term referring to jealousy of someone perceived to have higher social position or kudos. Unfortunately we Australians are not content to leave it there and cutting down "tall poppies" is an inevitable Australian reaction if someone has is seen to have gotten too big for their boots. Be warned - no-one is immune!

Answer: A clean playground

In an emu parade, students were lined up across the entire length of the playground and moved slowly forward under the watchful eyes of teachers. Each child was expected to pick up any rubbish directly in their path. The resultant spectacle was a long straggly row of children bobbing up and down for rubbish which looked for all the world like emus feeding.

Answer: All of these

Aside from odd linguistic habits, Australians have a strange predilection for words describing bodily functions. The language is littered with imaginative phrases for burps, farts and vomits. The yawn and the laugh are obvious graphic terms. The word chunder is most likely derived from Norman Lindsay's advertising character Chunder Loo and is rhyming slang for spew. (Another vomit word!)

Answer: To have a nap

A "bit rough" means it hasn't been an easy task (trust me). "Elbow grease" is another expression for plain hard work. To go from "go to whoa" is to go from start to finish and "flat chat" is as fast as possible. "All smiles" is hopefully self evident and the number of terms Aussies have for sleep is amazing.

When I first heard my father say he was off to have forty winks I sat at the bedroom door and winked forty times. I was a bit of a galah in those days.