bullocky

English

Etymology

From bullock +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊləki/

Noun

bullocky (plural bullockies)

1. (Australia and New Zealand colloquial, now historical) A person (usually a man) who drives a cart pulled by a team of bullocks.
   • 1972, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Stradbroke Dreamtime, Angus & Robertson, 1992, page 32:

     Mother looked as though she were having a fit. She was jumping up and down, running to snatch up the long-handled broom, swearing like a bullocky.

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 21:

     He could yarn with the bullockies for hours.

   • 1993, Mark St Leon, The Wizard of the Wire: The Story of Con Colleano‎^[1], page 18:

     Through the bush, the shouts of the bullockies and the cracking of their savage wattlestick whips reverberated as the teams slowly made their way. The bullocky′s whip was over four metres long with a handle of nearly three metres.

   • 2006, Jaydeep Sarangi, Binod Mishra, Explorations In Australian Literature, page 107:

     In so doing, the bullocky assumes a larger than life dimension and passes into the realm of myth and Australian legend.
     The bullocky in Australia has vanished into the past and old methods have given way to new - ‘grass is across the waggon-tracks and plough strikes bone beneath the grass’.

   • 2010, Graham Seal, Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales‎^[2], page 249:

     The bullock driver, or bullocky, was an important part of the rural labour force in the era before cars and, in some places, for long after. […] A good bullocky could get work just about anywhere.