mickeryn.

1898 Australasian Pastoralists' Rev. 15 Oct. 397/1 Messrs Hume and Woodbine may possibly get stuck on a scalded plain with an empty water-bag, with the glare of the mirage all around them, or they may have to scoop in a mickerie for a drink.

1935 H. H. Finlayson Red Centre x. 98 The Wonkonguroos, themselves an offshoot of the Aruntas, occupying until recently what is known as the mickerie country, a desolation to the north-west of the Yalliyandas.

1957 H. G. Lamond Dingo viii. 82 Every creek was running; every mickery in the hills was oozing water.

1963 I. L. Idriess Our Living Stone Age 7 There is a little mickerie of sweet water hidden in a clump of mulga over the first hill.

1915 J. R. B. Love Aborigines 12 At times one finds a ‘mickri’ or native well, containing water.

1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 6 June 20/2 A mickery was a timbered well-shaft sunk into the sandy bed of a creek; it was worked by means of a pole placed across a forked stick, the pole having a bucket attached to one end and a weight to the other.

1971 W. A. Winter-Irving Beyond Bitumen 118 The mickery was two long logs four feet apart sunk in the sand for about thirty feet.

1974 D. Stuart Prince of my Country v. 43 It's shallow water country. Get a well down close to one of those cement creeks and put a mickery on it, a fork and lever.