There Are No Snakes in Lisboa Trivia Quiz

Answer: No where near

Similar to 'not within 'cooee', a bull's roar means you're not even close.

The term came from the Mallee bulls, the tough cattle out in the Mallee scrub. These bulls also gave rise to the idiom 'fit as Mallee bull', meaning tough as nails, or tough as old boots. Cooee was used by Indigenous Australians to contact people from a far distance.

'My footy team is hopeless, they're not within a bull's roar of making the finals'. Cooee is usually associated with people or civilisation. 'When my car broke down in the scrub, I wasn't within cooee of the next town'.

Answer: Isolated

A shag is one of several species of Australian cormorants and they often perch on the rocks along the coastline. They are often alone, not in a colony and so to be 'like a shag on a rock' is to be isolated or exposed, with no friends or supporters.

The man alienated his former friends with his outlandish views so that they left him sitting alone like a shag on a rock.

Answer: Litter pickup

Also called an emu bob, it refers to a group of people following each other picking rubbish off the ground. The act of walking and bending down frequently is similar to an emu walking around pecking the ground. An emu parade used to be a favourite punishment doled out by head masters: the children would be sent out into the playground to pick up every piece of litter they could find.

The first known use of the term was back in the 1920s where people would pick up branches and wood after land clearing. Around the 1940s it came to mean the picking up of litter.

Answer: Free ride

Similar to 'riding on one's coat tails', this means to use someone else's success to help your own. Riding on a sheep's back is similar, but arose in the early to mid 20th century when Australia was a great wool producer. The success of our wool exports gave Australians a robust economy, in other words, the country was 'riding on a sheep's back'.

Living off a sheep's back is similar, but is used more to refer to sheep farmers who make a living from their flocks.

Answer: Liven things up

Australian possums are cute to look at but can be very dangerous when frightened or provoked. They make a loud squeal or growl when threatened and have very sharp teeth and claws. Being nocturnal, if you disturb one during the day you can be assured of getting a reaction.

It is similar in meaning to the idiom 'to poke a sleeping bear', which gained popularity overseas in the early 20th century. It is also similar to the phrase 'to grab a tiger by the tail', which arose from the Chinese 'he who rides on a tiger is afraid to dismount'.

Although possums are a fraction of the size of tigers and bears, they are just as ferocious.

This Aussie phrase was first recorded in 1888 and is the opposite of 'play possum'. To stir a possum is to liven up a boring or quiet gathering by inciting a controversial debate or argument, where people will invariably get on their high-horses and soap boxes. But much like stirring a possum, you may not like the reaction you get.

Over the years the possum was replaced by pot, so stirring the pot will cause trouble. Exactly what an angry possum will give you. The phrase also gave rise to 'stirrer' who is someone who stirs up trouble for fun.

Answer: Tired

Blow flies in summer are a well-known Australian annoyance and the cause of the 'great Aussie salute' - waving your hand in front of your face to shoo the flies. The prevalent and persistent little pests are drawn to the sweat and the fluid in our eyes and mouth. They are also the reason why people in the outback used to hang corks off the brim of their hats - to keep the flies off their face. Like all flies around the world, they are less active in winter and this noticeable decrease in blowfly activity gave rise to the saying used to describe someone who is not very active or has no energy.

It is the opposite of 'flat out like a lizard drinking' which mean very busy.

Answer: Opportunistic

The English version of a rat up a drain pipe refers to the speed of said rat - so it means to do something very quickly. This phrase probably came out with the convicts and while it still means to do something with great speed, Aussies can be quite cynical and this saying evolved to mean someone who's quick to take an opportunity. 'Fair dinkum, the minute I walked into the car yard the salesmen came at me like a rat up a drainpipe'.

Answer: A seasonal worker

Wallaby is the Indigenous Australian name for one of a smaller species of Australian marsupial, similar in appearance to the larger kangaroo. The Wallaby track is a path in the scrub worn by wallabies following a familiar trail. To be 'on the Wallaby track', then shortened to be 'on the Wallaby' is the term for a person who beats a regular path. It was first coined in relation to shearers who would go from station to station to shear the sheep. It then was used to describe anyone who did seasonal work or is on the dole.

It is similar in meaning to the English rhyming slang of 'the frog and toad' meaning the road.

Answer: A miser or free loader

In Australia, a shout is to buy a round of drinks. Aussies like be known as a sport or a bonza bloke, so if someone buys (shouts) you a drink, then you buy the next one. If you're in dire straits tell your mates and you'll get a free pass. But the person who mysteriously goes to the toilet every time it's his shout and continually shirks his round soon becomes an outcast, like a shag on a rock He's said to have short arms and deep pockets. Or he has a death adder or mousetraps in his pockets.

There are many sharks in Australian waters and shark attacks are a fairly regular occurrence. This has given rise to the term 'shark biscuit' which is Aussie for someone on a surfboard.

Answer: Happy and content

The phrase 'to be up a gum tree is to have difficulties', to be in strife. A 'possum up a gum tree' has two connotations, it could have been chased up the tree and therefore be in trouble, but because it was up the tree it was happy. Obviously a possum in danger would move very quickly, as would a stirred possum or an English rat up a drainpipe.

But once the possum was out of danger it would be as happy as Larry, or as happy as a pig in mud.