The Australian National Dictionary beta

Cultural Sensitivity Warning: Please note that due to the nature of this reference work as a historical dictionary and form of historical record, it contains terms that are offensive.

Select preference: [Hide sensitive content|Show sensitive content]

expanded quote list ⇕text sizeexpand long entries ⇕

oak n.
1. Any of many trees thought to resemble the English oak, generally in the appearance of the timber, esp. those of the family Casuarinaceae (see casuarina); the wood of these trees. Also attrib.

1789 J. Hunter Hist. Jrnl. Trans. Port Jackson (1793) 357 Pines, and oak-trees of the largest size, were blown down every instant.   1820 C. Jeffreys Van Dieman’s Land 19 Immense quantities of what is there called the blackwood, a species of oak, very hard, but easily worked.   1829 R. Mudie Picture of Aust. 136 To the casuarina, though it has no resemblance whatever to any species of oak, the colonists give the name of oak tree.   1838 Southern Austral. (Adelaide) 29 Sept. 1/4 These portable dwellings are constructed of well-seasoned Stringy Bark (the Oak of South Australia).   1846 L.W. Miller Notes of Exile Van Dieman’s Land 299 High hills  ..  partially covered with ‘she oak’ as it is commonly called. These oak forests were by far the most agreeable to the eye of any thing which I saw of the kind on the island.   1867 ‘Clergyman’ Aust. as it Is 20 The oak resembles a pine-tree, and is never found save where there is water.   1880 J. Bonwick Resources Qld. 81 The Oaks—Forest, Swamp, He, She, Fire, and River sorts—are Casuarinae.   1889 W.H. Tietkens Jrnl. Central Austral. Exploring Exped. 19 Apr. (1891) 14 Camped at 5 p.m. in oak sandhills and spinifex.   1935 F. Clune Rolling down Lachlan 192 One gets used to this  ..  when travelling in the Australian bush… Our iguana isn’t a real iguana, our oak isn’t an oak.   1965 Austral. Encycl. VI. 381 The word ‘oak’ is usually applied in Australia to various members of the genus Casuarina  ..  because the grain of their timbers resembles that of the English oak, having large conspicuous medullary rays.   1988 C. Dunne People under Skin 60 She goes to Mapoon for part of the year with her people… And sleeping under the oak tree.   2003 Austral. (Sydney) 20 Dec. (Weekend Mag. Suppl.) 23/1 Most distinctive and majestic of all Australia's arid zone species, the desert oak (Casuarina decaisneana) has been a puzzle for as long as it has been known to Western eyes. Thick-barked, fire-loving, the oak trees seem to be the oldest presence in the empty landscape.


2. With distinguishing epithet, as Australian oak, black oak, bull oak, creek oak, desert oak, forest oak, he-oak, mountain oak, native oak, river oak, satin oak, scrub oak, she-oak, silky oak, swamp oak, Tasmanian oak, tulip oak, white oak (see under first element).
3. Special Compound:

   oak grub the large larva of a variety of insects, usually beetles or moths, sometimes used as bait.

1889 Molong Express 2 Mar. 2/5 Dr Ross also showed us a petrified oak grub, as white as ivory and perfect in every detail.   1896 West Austral. (Perth) 3 Oct. 9/2, I thought I might as well start and be a blackfellow at once, so we got a rusty pan, without a handle, and cooked about a pint of fat, yellow, oak-grubs… We had broken a new pair of shears digging out those grubs from under the bark of the she-oaks.   1918 Queanbeyan Age 1 Feb. 2/8 Most Gundaigai [sic] fishermen go ‘nap’ on the oak grub as the king of baits.   1920 Queanbeyan Age 9 Mar. 4/1 The remainder of the party set off after oak grubs and a suitable fishing ground.   1938 Catholic Press (Sydney) 7 July 41/1 We used to dig up worms for our bait, and if we could get the fat, white oak grubs we thought ourselves lucky, as the fish loved them.   1973 Canberra Times 12 Oct. 19/2 Reports yesterday indicated that the majority of the cod were being taken on oak grubs.   1983 Canberra Chron. 26 Oct. 19/5 Bob Reid  ..  has begun his famous summer-bait service again and has good stocks of large oak grubs.