boobialla

plural boobiallas · alternative boobyalla

1. AustraliaAny of various plants of coastal or sandy regions, especially a small tree Acacia longifolia (subsp. sophorae), and various flowering plants in the genus Myoporum in the figwort family.First known use 19th c.

   One hundred and ninety-five years later, I look out over a strip of emerald boobyallas onto a deserted nine-mile beach.

   2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 9

   3 more examples

   I grabbed them and splashed across the river and up the far bank, backed deep into a boobialla bush and pulled them in after me.

   2001, Inga Clendinnen, Tiger's Eye: A Memoir, page 63

   And remember dead boobialla branches have one aim when you are gathering them, chopping them, lopping them, splitting them, breaking them under your boot – and that aimm is to gouge out your eye, to lance your hands, to trip you up, to deflect the axe into your boot, to kill you if possible.

   2007, Graeme Kinross-Smith, Long Afternoon of the World, page 184

   A vast forest of Boobialla trees, growing completely out of control, spread widely right to the very foreshore of the station.[…]At a later date, I would be responsible for clearing this boobialla with my trusty chainsaw.

   2010, Ray Kirkwood, Variant Breed, page 191