Look, you can't expect to send our troops to serve in a foreign country without
a guide, right?
But you
civilians had best not be looking at this!
Damn straight!!
This was produced during
WWII, and the library stamp is from
May 1943, so there's your timeline.
First, you have to reassure the poor Americans stationed there that there is an
important reason to be in Australia!
Then, lots of illustrated features to teach them local facts!
Then, the
most important feature--what do Australians eat?!?
Clearly, Australians were an
alien species. Look at that butter consumption!!
And then there is their
freaky money!
Less freaky nowadays, thank goodness. 12 pennies to a shilling? 20 shillings to a pound? 21 shillings to a guinea? Who has time for
all that math?!?!
And then there's the way they talk! The War Department felt obligated to publish this handy
translation guide for U.S. soldiers!
Crikey!!
Interesting that a couple of these (e.g. "trouble and strife") are Cockney rhyming slang.
ReplyDeleteAs an Aussie with a father who fought in WW2, I'm going to throw in here. In 1943, Australia was transitioning from being 'more British than the British' to looking more towards the US as being our real best friends/big brother. Singapore fell in 1942 and we lost a whole division of troops (the 8th AIF) with it; there was genuine fear that Japan was going to invade, and not only had Britain seemingly deserted us (and pissed away that division through poor strategy and arrogance) but Churchill was refusing to send our other divisions home. Meanwhile, the US had stepped up and sent troops, ships and planes, and we never forgot it.
ReplyDeleteThat butter consumption. Yeah. Well, back then, the dairy farmers had a lot of pull and margarine was non-existent in Australia as a result. When it was introduced, it was verboten to add yellow food coloring to it until the mid 1960s, so it looked like a gray, unappetizing lump, and so didn't sell. Tea was the national drink, as you can see. Coffee didn't get a foothold until the big post-war wave of Italian migrants brought their espresso machines with them. These days you can get a great cup of espresso anywhere in Australia. In fact, McDonalds' McCafes started off here.
And yes, a lot of the slang derived from Cockney rhyming slang - more British than the British as I said. Most of it's obsolete now though, but we do still call a hopeless case a drongo not a drogo. The term comes from a racehorse named Drongo that never won a race in its career.
Several of them have their origins in Cockney...though I'll go for a no-prize by pointing out that the very first one is wrong - it's drongo, not drogo.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, most of those terms have disappeared from the Oz vernacular (if they were ever really in it to begin with).
Strewth, me ol' cobber George posted at the same time.....snap!
ReplyDelete