1896. H.Lawson, `While the Billy boils,' p. 71:
"He was a typical bushman, … and of the old bush school; one of those slight active little fellows, whom we used to see in cabbage-tree hats, Crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and elastic-side boots."
(2) One who has knowledge of the bush, and is skilled in its ways. A "good bushman" is especially used of a man who can find his way where there are no tracks.
1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' pp. 78, 79:
"It is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as Mr. Batman would venture upon such an expedition had he not been well. In fact a better bushman at this time could not be met with."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 3:
"The worst bushman had to undertake the charge of the camp, cook the provisions, and look after the horses, during the absence of the rest on flying excursions."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 40:
"Very slight landmarks will serve to guide a good bushman, for no two places are really exactly alike."
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 78:
"One of the best bushmen in that part of the country: the men said he could find his way over it blindfold, or on the darkest night that ever was."
(3) Special sense. See quotation.
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 80:
"Some were what is termed, <i>par excellence</i>, bushmen—that is, men who split rails, get posts, shingles, take contracts for building houses, stockyards, etc.—men, in fact, who work among timber continually, sometimes felling and splitting, sometimes sawing."
<hw>Bushmanship</hw>, <i>n</i>. knowledge of the ways of the bush.
1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 261:
"A good laugh at the bushmanship displayed."
<hw>Bushranger</hw>, <i>n</i>. one who ranges or traverses the bush, far and wide; an Australian highwayman; in the early days usually an escaped convict. Shakspeare uses the verb `to range' in this connection.
"Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen
In murders and in outrage, boldly here."
(`Richard II.,' III. ii. 39.)
"Ranger" is used in modern English for one who protects and not for one who robs; as `the Ranger' of a Park.
1806. May 4, `Sydney Gazette' or `New South Wales Advertiser, given in `History of New South Wales,' p. 265:
"Yesterday afternoon, William Page, the bushranger repeatedly advertised, was apprehended by three constables."
1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,' p. 166:
[The settlements in Van Diemen's Land have] "been infested for many years past by a banditti of runaway convicts, who have endangered the person and property of every one. … These wretches, who are known in the colony by the name of bushrangers … "
1820. Lieut. Chas. Jeffreys, `Van Dieman's [sic] Land,' p. 15:
"The supposition … rests solely on the authority of the Bush Rangers, a species of wandering brigands, who will be elsewhere described."
1838. T. L. `Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 9:
"Bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which happily can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted police."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 81:
"This country [Van Diemen's Land] is as much infested as New South Wales with robbers, runaway convicts, or, as they are termed, Bush-rangers."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 77:
"The whole region was infested by marauding bands of bush-rangers, terrible after nightfall."
1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 252:
"Whilst he was engaged in this duty in Victoria, a band of outlaws—'bushrangers' as they are colonially termed—who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in the mountain ranges."
<hw>Bush-ranging</hw>, <i>n</i>. the practice of the Bushranger (q.v.).
1827. `Captain Robinson's Report,' Dec. 23
"It was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to their dress; which very much assisted the crime of `bush-ranging.'"
<hw>Bush-scrubber</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bushman's word for a boor, bumpkin, or slatternly person. See <i>Scrubber</i>.
1896. Modern. Up-country manservant on seeing his new mistress:
"My word! a real lady! she's no bush-scrubber!"
<hw>Bush-telegraph</hw>, <i>n</i>. Confederates of bushrangers who supply them with secret information of the movements of the police.
1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 507:
"The police are baffled by the false reports of the confederates and the number and activity of the bush telegraphs."
1893. Kenneth Mackay, `Out Back,' p. 74:
"A hint dropped in this town set the bush telegraphs riding in all directions."
<hw>Bushwoman</hw>, <i>n</i>. See quotation.
1892. `The Australasian,' April 9, p. 707, col. 1:
"But who has championed the cause of the woman of the bush—or, would it be more correct to say bushwoman, as well as bushman?—and allowed her also a claim to participate in the founding of a nation?"
<hw>Bush-wren</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Wren</i>.
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 108:
[A full description.]
<hw>Bushed</hw>, <i>adj., quasi past participle</i>, lost in the bush; then, lost or at a loss.
1661. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 115:
"I left my seat to reach a shelter, which was so many miles off, that I narrowly escaped being `bushed.'"
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia,' vol. i. p. 283:
"The poor youth, new to the wilds, had, in the expressive phrase of the colonials, got bushed, that is, utterly bewildered, and thus lost all idea of the direction that he ought to pursue."
1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 29:
"I get quite bushed in these streets."
1896. `The Argus,' Jan. 1, p. 4, col. 9:
"The Ministry did not assume its duty of leading the House, and Mr. Higgins graphically described the position of affairs by stating that the House was `bushed;' while Mr. Shiels compared the situation to a rudderless ship drifting hither and thither."
<hw>Bustard</hw>, <i>n</i>. "There are about twenty species, mostly of Africa, several of India, one of Australia, and three properly European." (`Century.') The Australian