Australian Slang - Local Lingo - Unique Phrases - Memorable Quotes
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I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE AUSTRALIAN – 'We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come. We'll share a dream and sing with one voice: I am, you are, we are Australian' - popular Australian song written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers and Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers
I BELIEVE YOU BUT THOUSANDS WOULDN'T - calling out a liar
I DEMAND AN APOLOGY, ONE OF YOUR TEAM MATES CALLED ME A BASTARD - Douglas Jardine to Australian Player. Reply: Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard? from the movie Bodyline [1984]
I DID BUT SEE HER PASSING BY, AND YET I LOVE HER TILL I DIE - In admiration of Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Robert Menzies famously quoted these lines in 1963 from English poet Thomas Ford’s poem Lady Sweet and Kind
IDIOT BOX - television
IF BLOOD SHOULD STAIN THE WATTLE - from Henry Lawson's poem Freedom on the Wallaby - So we must fly a rebel flag, As others did before us, And we must sing a rebel song, And join in rebel chorus. We'll make the tyrants feel the sting, O'those that they would throttle; They needn't say the fault is ours, If blood should stain the wattle
I FEEL LIKE A TOOHEYS – Tooheys advertising slogan
IFFY - questionable; a bit risky
IF THE BELL TOLLED FOR ISRAEL - 'I know that if the bell tolled for Israel, it would toll also for me as an individual, and for the whole world' - Prime Minister Bob Hawke paraphrasing John Donne's poem - No Man Is an Island
'IF YOU ASK ME, I THINK IT'S THE BIGGEST CHAUVINISTIC EXERCISE IN THE WORLD' (daughter Marie McIntyre) - 'THAT'S WHY NOBODY ASKS YOU, DARLING' (mother Mary McIntyre) - Quote from movie The Dish
I GOT ONLY A FIVER FOR THE SONG, BUT IT'S WORTH A MILLION TO ME TO HEAR IT SUNG LIKE THIS - Banjo Paterson on hearing Waltzing Matilda sung at an army camp at the beginning of WW1
I'LL BE A MONKEYS UNCLE - expression of surprise
I HAVE COME HERE JUST FOR THE VERY PURPOSE OF SEEING THE AUSTRALIANS. I AM GOING BACK TO-MORROW TO SEE MY COUNTRYMEN AND TELL THEM: I HAVE SEEN THE AUSTRALIANS. I HAVE LOOKED IN THEIR EYES. I KNOW THAT THESE MEN WHO HAVE FOUGHT GREAT BATTLES BESIDE US IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM WILL FIGHT ALONGSIDE US AGAIN UNTIL THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM FOR WHICH WE ARE BATTLING IS SAFE FOR US AND FOR OUR CHILDREN - French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau's visit to the 4th Australian Division's operations at Hamel on 7 July 1918 and his speech to the troops.
I'LL GO THE BASTARD - cause physical altercation
ILLYWHACKER - confidence trickster; sharp operator
I LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY, A LAND OF SWEEPING PLAINS - from Dorothea Mackellar's My Country
I'M ALRIGHT JACK -don't worry about me
I'M EASY - I don't mind one way or another
IMSHEE - begone - take yourself off (soldier slang WW1)
IN THE LOWEST DEEP, A LOWER DEEP - a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1660s) about Hell; included in Joseph Phipps Townsend in his series 'Rambles in New South Wales', referring to the penal settlement at Newcastle c. 182Os
IN A MO - soon
IN A TIZZ - excited
IN GOOD NICK - in good condition
INKED - drunk
INLAND TROUGH - or dry line, is a semi-permanent feature of the synoptic pattern over the interior of Queensland mostly during warmer months
IN LIKE FLYNN - successful (Errol Flynn)
I NEED IT LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD - don't need it at all
IN ONE HAND I HAVE A DREAM, AND IN THE OTHER I HAVE AN OBSTACLE. TELL ME, WHICH ONE GRABS YOUR ATTENTION? - Henry Parkes
INSIDE SQUATTER - a squatter residing within the margins of settlement as distinguished from pioneer or outside squatters in the wilder parts of Australia (Leland 1895)
IN THE BOX - In the Front Line (Army 1945)
IN THE STICKS - in the bush; away from civilization
INVESTIGATOR (HMS) - Matthew Flinders sailed from England in the Investigator on his greatest voyage, to circumnavigate the entire Australian continent, 1802
IODINES - Army Medical corps
IODINE VILLA - where the doctor rests his patients (soldier slang WW1)
IRON LUNG - wouldn't work in an iron lung - extremely lazy
IRON RATIONS FOR FRITZ - shells for the enemy (soldier slang WW1)
ISLE OF THE DEAD - small island adjacent to Port Arthur, Tasmania used as a cemetery for convicts and guards who died in the prisons
I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME - song written by Peter Allen - 'But no matter how far or wide I roam, I still call Australia home'; later Qantas theme song
IT'S A SIGN OF YOUR OWN WORTH SOMETIMES IF YOU ARE HATED BY THE RIGHT PEOPLE - Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin
IT'S BETTER THAN A TICKLE AND A SLAP IN THE BELLY WITH A WET FISH - not as bad as it could be
IT'S DEAD EASY TO DIE; IT'S THE KEEPING ON LIVING THAT'S HARD - Sir Douglas Mawson
IT'S EITHER SYDNEY OR THE BUSH - a final choice or decision
IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET - an unjust or unfair occurrence
IT'S MOMENTS LIKE THESE YOU NEED MINTIES - Advertising slogan 1920s
IT IS A WISE PROVISION THAT YOUTH CANNOT SEE WHAT IT OWES THE PREVIOUS GENERATION. THIS IS A CHICKEN THAT COMES BACK TO ROOST IN HEAVIER YEARS - Miles Franklin
IT IS BETTER TO BE DEFEATED ON PRINCIPLE THAN TO WIN ON LIES - Arthur Calwell, politician.
IVORIES - teeth
I WISH YOU WERE A STATUE AND I WERE A PIGEON - by Yabba, heckler at the Sydney Cricket Ground
I WOULDN'T BE DEAD FOR QUIDS - a reply to Howya going?
I WOULDN'T GIVE TUPPENCE - of no value
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