mulgan.
/ˈmʌlɡə/, U.S. /ˈməlɡə/, Australian English /ˈmʌlɡə/ Australian.
1. An item, esp. a shield or club, made of the wood of a mulga tree (see sense 2).
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1839 T. L. Mitchell Three Exped. II. 269 The malga is a weapon usually made in the form of fig. 2, but that with which these natives were provided somewhat resembled a pick-axe with one half broken off.
1889 J. H. Maiden Useful Native Plants Austral. 349 ‘Mulga’ is the name of a long narrow shield of wood, made by the aboriginals out of Acacia wood.
1944 C. Fenner Mostly Austral. 81 From the mulga the blacks made a special implement of war, the mulga, from which the plant got its name.
2. Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Acacia (family Mimosaceae ( Leguminosae)) native to dry inland regions of Australia and often forming dense scrub (also mulga tree, mulga bush); esp. A. aneura, with grey-green foliage sometimes used as fodder; frequently attributive. Also: the hard yellowish-brown wood of mulga trees; = mulga-wood n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > non-British trees or shrubs > acacia trees > [noun]
acacia1542
babul1696
marblewood1753
black wattle1802
popinac1809
wattlec1810
wattle-treec1810
giraffe tree1815
haakdoring1822
hookthorn1822
kameeldoorn1822
camel-thorn1824
catechu-tree1829
silver wattle1832
blackthorn1833
thorny acacia1834
boobyalla1835
seyal1844
mulga1848
thorn-wood1850
hackthorn1857
mimosa1857
poison tree1857
Port Jackson1857
talha1857
golden wattle1859
whitethorn acacia1860
buffalo thorn1866
nelia1867
siris1874
cassie1876
couba1878
needlebush1884
sallow wattle1884
sally1884
giddea1885
prickly Moses1887
yarran1888
opopanax tree1889
wait-a-while1889
fever tree1893
giraffe acacia1896
stay-a-while1898
brigalow1901
wirra1904
cootamundra1909
Sydney golden wattle1909
witchetty bush1911
rooikrans1917
jam-tree1934
whistling thorn1949
blackthorn1966
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > non-British trees or shrubs > acacia trees > [adjective]
brigalow1847
mulga1848
talha1857
1848 T. L. Mitchell Jrnl. Exped. Trop. Austral. 176 On the summit, grew the Malga tree; which is an acacia of such very hard wood.
1858 J. M. Stuart Jrnl. 18 June in Explor. Austral. (1864) 6 The hills are..destitute of timber, except..the mulga bushes in the sand hills.
1862 H. Kendall Poems & Songs 79 Look for the malga, and salt-bitten shrubs.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 400 The boundless ocean-plains..where the saltbush grows, and the myall and the mulgah.
1893 R. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 36 She wanted to see if there were any late mulgams..and..did find some untimely berries.
1900 R. Bruce Benbonuna (1904) 361 A nervous hand clutched a long, heavy mulga spear.
1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling x. 88 The graceful grey mulga trees..came right down to the river.
1938 D. M. Bates Passing of Aborigines 190 I built an enclosing breakwind of mulga bushes.
1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 5 On the stony hills, the mulga trees gave no shade.
1981 A. B. Cribb & J. W. Cribb Useful Wild Plants Austral. 103 More book ends, serviette rings and ink stands must have been made from mulga than from any other Australian timber.
2000 Land (N. Richmond, New S. Wales) 1 June (Trader section) 31/1 (advt.) Mainly soft red country with..excellent stands of mulga.
3. With the. Land covered with mulga trees; remote or sparsely populated land; the outback.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > wild or uncultivated land > [noun]
westerneOE
weste landOE
wastinea1175
westec1175
wastec1200
wildernc1200
wildernessc1200
wildernessc1230
warlottc1290
forestc1320
wastyc1325
deserta1398
wastern?a1400
wildnessa1513
the wilds of1600
vastness1605
vastacy1607
roughet1616
wild1637
wildland1686
bush1780
wastage1823
mesquite1834
wasteland1887
mulga1896
virgin bush1905
boondock1944
boonies1954
virgin land1955
the world > the earth > land > landscape > fertile land or place > land with vegetation > [noun] > wooded land > types of
ripplelOE
wildwooda1122
rough1332
firth?a1400
tod stripec1446
osiard1509
bush1523
bush-ground1523
fritha1552
island1638
oak landc1658
pinelandc1658
piney wood1666
broom-land1707
pine barrenc1721
pine savannah1735
savannah1735
thick woods1754
scrub-land1779
olive wood1783
primeval forest1789
open wood1790
strong woods1792
scrub1805
oak flata1816
sertão1816
sprout-land1824
flatwoods1841
bush-land1842
tall timber1845
amber forest1846
caatinga1846
mahogany scrub1846
bush-flat1847
myall country1847
national forest1848
selva1849
monte1851
virgin forest1851
bush-country1855
savannah forest1874
bush-range1879
bushveld1879
protection forest1889
mulga1896
wood-bush1896
shinnery1901
fringing forest1903
monsoon forest1903
rainforest1903
savannah woodland1903
thorn forest1903
tropical rainforest1903
gallery forest1920
cloud forest1922
rain jungle1945
mato1968
1896 H. Lawson While Billy Boils 40 Two or three white-washed galvanized-iron roofs start out of the mulga.
1909 ‘S. Rudd’ From Selection to City (1910) xiv. 119 We had listened to many lies about the glory of running wild horses and cattle in the mulga.
1928 V. Palmer Man Hamilton 26 Manager of this isolated place in the mulga, a hundred miles away from anywhere.
1946 F. D. Davison Dusty (1947) 1 They live at the bidding of herdsman and drover.., punching stubborn bullocks through the mulga.
1964 Punch 18 Nov. 750/2 To pack a gun around the mulga.
1969 Northern Territory News (Darwin) (Focus '69 Suppl.) 97/1 Contractors take the fuel off the Track to places out in the sticks and the mulga.
1981 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 26 Apr. 522 This time next year Lord Mayor Frank Sleeman will probably be behind the wheel of a four-wheel-drive vehicle out in the mulga.
4. slang. = mulga wire n. 1.
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society > communication > [noun] > channel of information, communication, etc.
mulga1899
mulga wire1899
pipeline1916
1899 Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Mar. 15/2 A lie or false report is, in N.S.W., a ‘Mulga’ or ‘Mulga-wire’.
1908 E. S. Sorenson Quinton's Rouseabout 186 They'll be that delighted to find it was only a mulga that they'd toast you as ‘a jolly good fellow’.
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 47 Mulga, a falsehood, a rumour.
1950 K. S. Prichard Winged Seeds 297 The troops've had it all by mulga. They've heard too.
5. Short for mulga snake n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Elapidae or Najidae
Pseudechis1887
mulga1935
1935 Discovery Jan. 5/2 A giant Black Snake from Cape York, the Mulga (Pseudechis australis), yielding large quantities of venom.
1988 New Scientist 16 June 78/1 The real horror is the mulga, or king brown snake, a large, dark and very mean sort that bites repeatedly.
Compounds
C1.
mulga-covered adj.
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1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King iv. 27 They rode for thirty miles among the low, mulga-covered ridges that are the foot-hills of the Barrier Range.
1971 World Archaeol. 3 170 The mulga-covered flats.
mulga-dotted adj.
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1936 F. Clune Roaming round Darling xxii. 226 Steep mulga-dotted headland along Bluff Waterhole.
C2.
mulga apple n. a large edible gall formed by the mulga tree.
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1888 Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales 3 483 The other [gall] is less abundant, larger, succulent, and edible. These latter galls are called ‘Mulga apples’ and are said to be very welcome to the thirsty traveller.
1904 A. W. Howitt Native Tribes S.-E. Austral. 791 They travelled farther north, gathering the mulga apples by the way, some of which they roasted.
1938 D. M. Bates Passing of Aborigines 209 Mulga apples, acrid but sustaining.
1981 P. Hay Meeting of Sighs 79 There are mulga apples all soft and sweet.
Categories »
mulga bush n. see sense 2.
mulga grass n. any of several grasses found in dry inland regions of Australia, esp. Thyridolepis mitchelliana and Aristida contorta.
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1882 Austral. Handbk. 392 The ‘Mulga Grass’..is valuable as thriving under shade in poor soil.
1935 H. H. Finlayson Red Centre 33 The mulga-grass (Anthistiria sp.), one of the best fodder grasses is conspicuous in summer owing to the curious spirally twisted habit assumed by the tussocks during desiccation.
1966 A. Morris Plantlife W. Darling 7 Grasses which favour hilly situations are..Neurachne Mitchelliana..(Mulga Grass) [etc.].
1998 Rangeland Jrnl. 20 206 Herbage in the interception zone principally comprised palatable C3 perennial grasses such as Thyridolepis mitchelliana (mulga grass) and Monachather paradoxa (bandicoot grass).
mulga madness n. colloquial eccentricity associated with or attributed to living in the outback.
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1905 Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Apr. 18/2 He said he had had several rums but the mulga madness brands never upset his digestion.
1980 S. Thorne I've met some Bloody Wags 115 He was a prime example of ‘mulga madness’. Given a good drench and put on a small lush block in the ‘inside country’ he would be a new man.
mulga parrot n. a brightly coloured parrot, Psephotus varius, whose plumage includes patches of red, yellow, blue, and green.
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Psittaciformes (parrots, etc.) > [noun] > genus Psephotus (mulga parrot)
grass parrot1840
mulga parrot1931
1931 N. W. Cayley What Bird is That? 144 Mulga Parrot... Also called Many-coloured Parrot and Varied Parrot.
1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 115 With the sun would come the parrakeets, mulga parrots, their green wings flashing in the sun.
1984 M. Blakers et al. Atlas Austral. Birds 281 The Mulga parrot is aptly named because its distribution closely follows that of the mulga.
mulga scrub n. an area of mulga trees; the vegetation of such trees.
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1860 J. M. Stuart Jrnl. 28 May in Explor. Austral. (1864) 190 Our course was through a very thick mulga scrub.
1898 D. W. Carnegie Spinifex & Sand 98 Wait till you make your evening feed off mulga scrub and bark—that'll take the buck out of you!
1931 V. Palmer Separate Lives 211 Country that was a maze of emu-bush and mulga scrubs.
1960 Times 5 July 11/6 The country was covered with light mulga scrub.
1998 Time Internat. (Electronic ed.) 23 Nov. 76 He spends his time as a handyman and fossicker, looking through the mulga scrub and sandhill country.
mulga scrubber n. slang a livestock animal that has deteriorated in the wild.
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1897 Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Mar. 28/1 He loves the merry rattle of the stockwhip and the tramp Of the cockhorned mulga scrubbers when they're breaking in the bush.
1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 67 The bullock driver and stockman have invented many terms by which to describe their charges. Here are some of the best:..mulga scrubbers.., stock that have run wild and deteriorated in condition.
mulga snake n. the king brown snake, Pseudechis australis (cf. sense 5).
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1929 J. R. Kinghorn Snakes of Austral. 160 The Copper Snake is very similar to the Mulga Snake..and may be easily mistaken for it.
1941 Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Apr. 16/4 For sheer pugnacity I'll put the blue ribbon on the mulga snake of the Lower Thompson (W.Q.) as champ. of the ophidian world.
1991 Toxicon 29 1129 Two antibacterial components from the venom of an Australian elapid, Pseudechis australis (Australian king brown or mulga snake) were purified to homogeneity.
Categories »
mulga tree n. see sense 2.
mulga-wood n. the hard yellowish-brown wood of mulga trees.
ΚΠ
1936 F. Clune Roaming round Darling xxii. 223 A mulgawood causeway was built in front for a distance of thirty yards.
1956 S. Hope Diggers' Paradise 202 This [bedside lamp] was on a mulga-wood stand.
1987 Woman's Day (Melbourne) 27 July 100/2 A aneura is as well-known for its timber qualities (mulga-wood ink stands) as its flowers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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