A bush telly is a campfire, or the stars – in other words, what you watch for entertainment at night in the bush. It’s rather a beautiful term and one that continues to this very day. Instead of being relegated to the past like some Australian colloquialisms, bush telly can even be found on Instagram. This is a little at odds with the meaning, but heartwarming to see nonetheless.
Aside from the telly, there are a number of other bush compounds in Australian English. Most people would be familiar with bush tucker, and bush-bashing, but there are some lesser known gems that we might leave up to you to investigate, such as the bush banana and the bush oyster.
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
