Meaning and Origins of Australian Words and Idioms
coolibah
The term coolibah is best known from the opening lines of Banjo Paterson’s 1895 lyrics for the song Waltzing Matilda:
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong Under the shade of a coolibah tree…
The word is a borrowing from Yuwaaliyaay (and neighbouring languages), an Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales.
In the earlier period it was was spelt in various ways, including coolabah, coolobar, and coolybah.
It is term for any of several eucalypts, especially the blue-leaved Eucalyptus microtheca found across central and northern Australia, a fibrous-barked tree yielding a durable timber and occurring in seasonally flooded areas.
Coolibah is first recorded in the 1870s.
1876 Sydney Morning Herald 9 August:
The country consists of open plains, with myall and coolabah.
1995 Australian (Sydney)
16 September:
With its dead coolibah trees, sun-bleached cattle bones and screeching galahs, Howard Blackburn’s back paddock could be anywhere in Australia’s drought-ravaged grazing lands.
source…
SCHOOL OF LITERATURE, LANGUAGES, AND LINGUISTICS
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY
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