stringy-bark Austral.
a. A name for many species of Eucalyptus (e.g. E. gigantea), which have a tough fibrous bark. Also attrib.
| 1801 [see blackbutt]. 1802 Barrington Hist. N.S. Wales ix. 358 This [canoe] was formed of the Stringy bark. 1832 J. Bischoff Van Diemen's Land ii. 22 The stringy bark is perhaps one of the most useful trees in the island. 1859 Cornwallis New World I. 168 A short ascent through stringy-bark forest. 1885 Hayter Carboona 4 She..made twine nets of the stringy-bark fibre. |
b. The bark or wood of any of these trees.
| 1848 W. Westgarth Australia Felix vi. 73 These natives appear to like also the fruit of the pandanus, of which large quantities were found in their camps, soaking in water contained in vessels formed of stringy-bark. 1859 Cornwallis New World I. 191 Other sheets of stringy-bark were then bent over the platform. 1880 Fison & Howitt Kamilaroi 196 Down to the waist they are all wound round with frayed stringybark in thick folds. 1901 M. Franklin My Brilliant Career i. 3 The stringy bark roof of the salt-shed..protected the troughs from rain. 1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country vi. 94 On that early journey when it rained they hove to under the drays, well-covered by tarpaulins supplemented by stringy-bark lean-tos. 1977 Weekly Times (Melbourne) 19 Jan. 39/2 The basic materials used are local gum and stringy bark. |
c. An inhabitant of the outback, an uncouth person. Also as quasi-adj., belonging to the ‘bush’ or uncultivated country.
| 1833 N.S. Wales Mag. I. 173 (Morris) The workmanship of which I beg you will not scrutinize, as I am but, to use a colonial expression, ‘a stringy-bark carpenter’. 1836 J. F. O'Connell Residence Eleven Yrs. New Holland 49 Let us suppose the suitor an old ‘stringy-bark’, such being the soubriquet in which inland settlers rejoice. 1861 H. Earle Ups & Downs 59 She would never have had the bad taste to prefer a stringy bark like me to such a fine-looking, first-class fellow as yourself. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xxiii, I'd give a tenner out of my own pocket they was all..back at Bowning or some other stringy-bark hole as is fit for 'em. 1892 H. Nisbet Bushranger's Sweetheart iv. 30 He was a larikin of the larikins, this tiny Stringy Bark, who haunted my thoughts. |