backblock

plural backblocks · alternative back-block · alternative back block

1. AustraliaNew Zealandplural normallyA remote tract of land in the interior; hence (in plural) sparsely populated country far from major cities and lacking conveniences common in urban areas.First known use 19th c.

   Near-synonyms: upcountry, interior, hinterland

   4 more examples

   I speak solely for the backblock roads, and I contend that the time has arrived when the Government should turn its attention to the metalling of these roads.

   1931, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, volume 229, page 281

   It has happened in other districts that new settlement has turned the old centres into isolated backblocks.

   1955, Helen Wilson, My First Eighty Years, page 185

   Backblocks hardship is a very real thing, but Mary Scott expresses it somewhat too much in the Victorian ‘There′s a tear on your eye’ mode, little graves on the hillside and old servants, horses and dogs, faithful to the last.

   1991, Robin Hyde, Gillian Boddy, Jacqueline D. Matthews, Disputed Ground: Robin Hyde, Journalist, page 225

   The weeping man was an emancipist who had a backblock in the next valley & sometimes came over to see his cobber the shepherd, both being Roscommon men.

   2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 82

   Synonyms: backcountry, wop-wops, boondock, upcountry, interior, hinterland

2. Australiaexcessiveinformalplural normallyThe most distally outlying suburb among a set of suburbs.
3. Land behind which fronts on water; land without a permanent watercourse.First known use 19th c.