bullocky

plural bullockies

1. AustraliaNew ZealandcolloquialhistoricalA person (usually a man) who drives a cart pulled by a team of bullocks.

   He could yarn with the bullockies for hours.

   1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 21

   4 more examples

   Mother looked as though she were having a fit. She was jumping up and down, running to snatch up the long-handled broom, swearing like a bullocky.

   1972, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Stradbroke Dreamtime, Angus & Robertson, 1992, page 32

   Through the bush, the shouts of the bullockies and the cracking of their savage wattlestick whips reverberated as the teams slowly made their way. The bullocky′s whip was over four metres long with a handle of nearly three metres.

   1993, Mark St Leon, The Wizard of the Wire: The Story of Con Colleano, page 18

   In so doing, the bullocky assumes a larger than life dimension and passes into the realm of myth and Australian legend. The bullocky in Australia has vanished into the past and old methods have given way to new - ‘grass is across the waggon-tracks and plough strikes bone beneath the grass’.

   2006, Jaydeep Sarangi, Binod Mishra, Explorations In Australian Literature, page 107

   The bullock driver, or bullocky, was an important part of the rural labour force in the era before cars and, in some places, for long after.[…]A good bullocky could get work just about anywhere.

   2010, Graham Seal, Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales, page 249