Help! Heading to Queensland & Our Australian Slang is Rusty!

Crikey! What a little bewdy!

We’re heading to Queensland in a week – and couldn’t BE more excited!

It’s our first time visiting Australia and while doing our pre-game research / planning / drooling we discovered that, sadly, our knowledge of Aussie colloquialisms was limited to dated Crocodile Dundee movies and Outback Steakhouse commercials.

Realizing this had to change, we hit the Twittersphere and asked a simple question:

What we ended up with is a fun and colorful glossary of Australian slang gathered from our Twitter friends!

Perhaps sensing our feeling of urgency, Paula at Contented Traveller sent this:


We had NO idea that women are not supposed to use “mate”! This information is quite well received – Veronica does NOT want to misuse the term when skydiving onto the beach in Coolum – who knows what may go awry? Safety first, we always say. (We not only had a successful skydive, but ended up on Aussie TV because of it!)

Lisa, over at 6 Andersons 1 World, may have saved our lives here:

It would have been tragic not to know this one – seriously. We’re worthless without our morning cuppa. We want to be fully awake when we feed crocodiles (!) in Gold Coast. (Yep, successful croc feed accomplished – all limbs accounted for, barely!)

We also got to feed quite a few bizarre Aussie animals at the Australia Zoo!

The fabulous Bender Family of Travel with Bender fame supplied us with these nuggets:

Let’s practice: We’re excited to throw a snag on the barbie later this arvo!

Does that work? Or will we be snickered at when we utter it while taking a cooking class from a Australian chef in the Hinterlands? AND we learned why there never can be shrimp on the barbie! :0

Jenny, foodie extraordinaire, from A Taste of Travel in Perth supplied us with these nuggets:


A cray sando sounds great to us Jenny! Perhaps the perfect thing to pack when we explore the rainforest of Noosa’s Hinterland?

Emma from Sydney shared:


Thanks Emma! Though we’re a bit confused about the sango/sanger discrepancy. Is this a Perth/Sydney thing? Which do they use in Queensland? Emma has more in store for us later…

Let’s practice: Maybe not. That’s a real mouthful of words, and all of our attempts at putting them together into a sentence seem to come out like some sort of crazy, down under mad-lib. (Not putting those words together was a good choice – the fun-loving folks in Gold Coast would have had a field day with that!)

Those adorable monkeys at Wise Monkeys Abroad filled us in:

A good combo. Always nice to be polite when tipping back a few beers at the beach after a hard day snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef or kayaking the Noosa Everglades. (Bucket list – check! We had a BLAST snorkeling the reef!)

Our new buddy Sos let it fly:


We ciphered out budgie smugglers (there is a lot of scary slang for these from all over the world that we won’t repeat here!) – speedos. But servo, bottle-o or g’donya mate?

Let’s practice: G’donya mate! You stopped at the servo AND picked up the grog at the bottle-o?

We THINK we just said: Good for you buddy! You stopped at the gas station AND you picked up a pint at the liquor store. Well, David said the “mate” part. 😉

And we got an eyeful of budgie smugglers while basking on Dickey Beach in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast!

Emma continued:

WHEW. Good stuff. We could have gotten into trouble not knowing that. After cuddling koalas in Brisbane, we never know what we might say! (We DID get to cuddle koalas! Everything we’d dreamed it would be – and more!)

Perhaps Queensland herself is worried we might be buying too many rounds as well, because they tweeted this:

To learn advanced phrases like, “Bog in and have some tucker” and “Take a squizz at this” and
“It’s ridgie didge,” check out the wonderfully informative (and humorous) infographic they’ve made for “educational” purposes.

Crikey!, we have some studying to do.

David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com

YOUR TURN: Do you have any more slang to round out our education? Any travel tips for Australian newbies? Thoughts on us jumping out of an airplane (we do, but are afraid to vocalize them!)?


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28 thoughts on “Help! Heading to Queensland & Our Australian Slang is Rusty!”

  1. “Chuck us another tinnie from the eskie, mate.” is my fave, taught to me by my mate, Phil. Also, “chunder” and “the technicolour yawn,” which are two words for what you do if you’ve had too many tinnies.

  2. ‘She’ll be right mate Come on over for tea’ This covers a thanks. No worries, it’s a pleasure And tea normally means supper! Of course the favorite is Slip slap slop Slip on your thongs (beach shoes not undies ) slap on the sunhat and slop on the sunscreen Aah you’ll love Noosa Enjoy sunny Qld beware it’s warm and them there’s the hurricane season on our doorstep XML

  3. You guys are nailing this! I’ve also learned something new…. I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to say ‘mate’! Maybe I’m not as Aussie as I thought???
    I’m more of a ‘sanga’ than ‘sando’ type gal, from South Australia though, so not sure what those Queenslanders are on about 😉 At least it’s not as bad as the UK sarnie!
    Now you’ve got the lingo down… you might have to learn more about the food; Bundy, flat white, chicko roll and I hope you like Vegemite 🙂

    1. The sandwich plot thickens… maybe we should swear them off while visiting – just in case? Going to need definitions on bundy, flat white, chico roll. As far as Vegemite goes we had some Australian friends invite us to do a taste-off between Vegemite and Marmite on a cruise last year. Yikes! How do you guys eat that stuff? Maybe we should try “fresh” Vegemite on native soil before giving up! 😉

  4. Here’s your study guide from @mappingmegan:
    http://www.mappingmegan.com/how-to-tell-an-australian-abroad/

    Give the death stare if anyone calls you a “dag.” And ALWAYS say “smash the Poms” when it comes to any sports, especially cricket!

    I’ll be in Tassie soon to support Shane James who is running 28 marathons in 28 days as the build-up to Rare Disease Day on Feb 28. Did I mention that Ozzies are super tough? So maybe rethink that death stare comment….

    1. Thanks so much Kati – there are real gems in there! 28 marathons in 28 days – that’s amazing – good on him (did I use that right?) Yeah, the death stare might not be our brightest move. 😉 Googling Shane James now… -Veronica

  5. You are getting there. Now Veronica when you sky diving into Coolum the following are universally accepted “Holy ****” fill in whatever blank as any are accepted and expected. Use Crikey and you will get your block knocked off or just be called a wanker or a dickhead. Emma is right, shouting will get you accepted quickly and ripped off quicker if you don’t know the rules. Ordering beers is tricky as the term changes in each state from pot to schooie, to So ” a pot of XXXX thanks mate” is your new catchphrase in Qld. and Sos is right, add an ‘o’ to any word and your are doing well particularly if shouting at the local bowlo.
    Have fun and keeps us all posted. Can’t wait and hope you Yanks do. :))

  6. If you want to sound like a real Queenslander you have to finish every sentence with, ay. Nice day, ay?
    It also helps if you like drinking bundy, hate cockroaches (the NSW kind) and support the Maroons. Enjoy the trip.

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