The slang and sayings only South Aussies will understand (or how to speak South Australian)
Crossing state lines into SA for the first time? Get across the local lingo with this handy guide to the slang and phrases only South Australians will understand.
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Australia’s creative approach to the English language sets us apart around the world, so much so that the internet is chockers with guides to our unique lexicon of slang words and phrases, designed to help visiting foreigners navigate a country full of biccies, bottle-os and budgie smugglers.
But Australia’s a bloody big country, so naturally there are regional differences in the national vernacular. If you don’t want to look like a goose when visiting a state or territory for the first time, it helps to get across the local lingo.
So without further ado, we bring you our guide to the words and phrases only South Australians will understand.
What did we miss? Post your suggestions in the comments box below.
GOING BOONTA
In the US you go bananas, in the UK like the clappers but in South Australia you go boonta. According to the highly reputable source that is the Urban Dictionary, boonta is a “South Australian term to describe someone going crazy, getting excited, angry etc”.
But where the term comes from officially? And is it strictly native to these parts? Who knows.
In fact, we’re pretty sure you could poll 100 people on the street and not one of them could give you the etymology of this particular entry in the South Aussie lexicon, and yet we bet every one of them could use it in a sentence.
How to use it in a sentence: “Mate, you should see me tomato bushes at the moment. They’re goin’ boonta!”
HEAPS GOOD
Ever been front row at a concert by your favourite band as they finish a third encore with your favourite song? Ever watched your footy team kick the winning goal on the final siren? Ever tasted a delicious new ice cream flavour, watched an engrossing TV series or had a hot lap in a racing car? Do you ever wish you had a phrase that was equal to the moment? That could describe an experience that was not just good… but better than good?
You’re looking for the term “heaps good”, the South Australian word garnish that makes good things better. Think of it as the SA equivalent of the 11 setting on Nigel Tufnel’s guitar amp.
Why go to 10 when you can go to 11?
Like the term croweater, some people will try to tell you that heaps good is not native to South Australia ... but they do admit it is used more commonly here than anywhere else. Which is good enough for us. Heaps good, actually.
How to use it in a sentence: “Have you tried that new restaurant on Gouger St? It’s heaps good.”
CROWEATER
As the old joke goes, you eat one crow ... If ever you were in need of proof that words carry weight and insults can stick, look no further than the term “croweater”, which has dogged the good people of this state for 140 years. This is despite the murky etymology of the term which, depending on whose history you read;
■ First applied to original settlers at Mount Barker who, either because they were starving or curious, “killed, cooked and ate some crows disguised under the term ‘Mount Barker pheasants’.”
■ Applied generally to the first settlers, who ate the breast meat of not only crows but also parrots and cockatoos because red meat was so scarce.
■ Had nothing to do with South Australians at all because the first croweaters were actually Western Australians.
■ Was the term given to a bunch of South Aussies who got a bit peckish while crossing the 90-mile desert on the way to the Victorian gold fields and so were “forced to shoot crows for food”.
Look, the point is, it was a long time ago, all right? We’ve got fancy restaurants now. And a footy team called, somewhat awkwardly, the Crows. And anyway, lean meat is trendy now so actually our pioneers were way ahead of their time.
How to use it in a sentence: “Call me croweater one more time, you filthy sandgroper...”
BUNG FRITZ
The terms “bung” and “fritz” are commonly used to describe things that are either stuffed or broken (knees, TVs, computers). But marry them and they describe one of the culinary wonders of the world – fatty processed deli meat. Bung fritz was said to have been invented in the 1880s (or 1890s) by a German migrant who used to work at a butcher in Hindley St (or Lobethal). Look, we don’t really know. But we know this for damn sure, this is a purely South Australian invention.
Let’s get another thing straight. Bung fritz is bung fritz. It’s not “devon” or “strasbourg” as the Vics call it, it’s not “luncheon” like in Queensland and it sure as hell isn’t “polony” like in WA.
It’s orange, it’s weird and it’s ours.
How to use it in a sentence: “Mate, I could murder a fritz-and-sauce sandwich!”
STOBIE POLE
Sure, Sydney has the Opera House, Melbourne the MCG. But how many cities have got their own pole? Adelaide’s got its own pole. And it’s everywhere. Named after the clever sod who patented it in 1924, James Cyril Stobie, the Stobie pole, for carrying power and telephone cables, is as simple as it is ugly – just two lengths of steel channel on the outside and concrete in the middle.
Poles were already a bit of a thing in 1924, so why did Stobie waste time reinventing the wheel? It was an engineering solution, you see. As the Australian Dictionary of Biography explains: “South Australia suffered from a scarcity of timber and an abundance of termites. Poles that were brought, at considerable expenses, from other states were often destroyed by white ants.”
And yeah, all right, the Stobie pole didn’t take off around the world. But that’s what makes this unique invention such a South Australian treasure, worthy of being mentioned every time someone mixes up the accelerator with the brake backing out of the driveway.
And if nothing else, they make a good canvas for community art.
How to use it in a sentence: “Watch out for the Stobie pole when you come around the corner.”
MEET YOU AT THE MALL’S BALLS
In Melbourne it’s the Flinders Street clocks, in Sydney the Town Hall Steps, Brisbane the Hungry Jack’s in Queen Street Mall. In Adelaide, we meet at the Mall’s Balls – known by the more sophisticated as “Spheres” by the late artist Bert Flugelman and unveiled in October 1977.
It’s difficult to say how or why the balls became synonymous with catching up for a coffee with your mate from uni that you haven’t seen in ages. Maybe it’s just the most logical place to rendezvous because the Spheres just stick out like … well, you know what.
And if you ever lose your way on the way to the balls, you can always stop and ask the new giant pigeon for directions. They’re good at finding their way home.
How to use it in a sentence: “I’m at the Mall’s Balls. Where are you? Is that you waving?”
CATCH THE O-BAHN
Truly one of the weirdest projects this city has ever built or invested in, the O-Bahn is what you get when you ask bureaucrats in the 1970s to imagine a futuristic mode of public transport and the furthest they can see into the future is 1986. And even then, they’re sticking with buses and not anything cool like flying cars or those time travel booths from Tenet.
But the O-Bahn is nothing if not unique, the people who use it love it and until 2011 at least this curio of civil engineering held the mantle as the longest and fastest guided busway in the world. And according to UniSA planning expert and former Director-General of Transport in SA during its construction, Adjunct Professor Derek Scrafton, the project was money well spent. “The O-Bahn is far more efficient than Adelaide’s rail network in terms of patronage per kilometre. Its popularity is also increasing each year, with 50 per cent more people using it than in the early 1990s,” Prof Scrafton said in a press release last January.
The O-Bahn has also been popular with foreign tourists and drivers returning from a night at the pub at 4am who wrongly believe the busway is also designed for cars.
How to use it in a sentence: “Leave your car at TTP and catch the O-Bahn. It’ll be quicker.”
MORE FRONT THAN JOHN MARTIN’S
Seems like every Aussie city has a version of this handy put-down. In Melbourne, someone who is arrogant or overly cocky is said to have “more front than Myer’s”. In Adelaide, the phrase was localised for the popular department store John Martin’s and before that Foy & Gibson, which, according to SA history writer Bob Byrne was a dominant presence in the city. “With huge frontage and large display windows in both Rundle and Pulteney streets, it was visible from any part of the city,” Byrne wrote.
How to use it in a sentence: “Geez you’ve got more front than John Martin’s, asking me a thing like that”.
PIE FLOATER
Unlike so many other parts of the world, Australia’s cuisine is pretty much homogenous across the board and generally lacking in regional variety. A meat pie, bucket of chips or chicken schnitzel is as good in Brisbane as it is in Broome. But then there’s pie floater... ah, the glorious pie floater. A South Australian delight so unique and so precious to Australia’s culinary story the National Trust even named it as a heritage icon. Not a bad hangover cure, either.
How to use it in a sentence: “I could murder a pie floater.”
THE ONE-WAY EXPRESSWAY
Perspective is a wonderful thing. Depending on yours, South Australia’s one-way expressway (2001-2014) was either the World’s Stupidest Idea or a shining example of what you can achieve when you’re skint but still determined to build a new road. Coming along just a decade after the ruinous collapse of the State Bank, and to save the extra $68m it would have cost to make the roadway run in both directions, the then Liberal government decided to build a single lane road but make it reversible. From the south to the city in the mornings, from the city to the south in the afternoon.
The Weatherill government put us out of our misery in 2014, finally duplicating the expressway to – now wait for it – allow cars to drive in two directions at the same time. The project also put paid to many of the smug jibes from the eastern seaboard but let’s be honest, it will take SA a long time to live this one down.
How to use it in a sentence: “Sorry I’m late. The expressway was running the wrong way.”
THE GREEN DEATH
If you’re not from around these parts, “The Green Death” probably sounds like a nasty disease you might contract in South America. But any self-respecting South Aussie knows it’s how beer-drinkers used to refer to Southwark Bitter, from the SA Brewing Company, known for its bold taste and distinctive green tins.
Again, there’s no definitive history of the nickname. No doubt it had something to do with the colour of the tin, and the colour of the faces of those who indulged too enthusiastically the night before. The blog beeradelaide.com offers another theory.
“(The name) became popular interstate after Southwark Bitter was exported to Sydney in the 1960s during a brewery workers strike, and due to improper transport and storage the beer had gone bad”. Or maybe it was meant to taste that way. As one bloke on a 2003 comment thread wrote: “(Southwark) was the crap beer you’d see your dad drinking in the lounge room in front of the TV, slowly rotting away during the afternoon”.
If that sounds like your idea of a good time, West End Brewery owner LionCo announced in January it would be releasing a limited edition run of the beer using the original recipe. And yes, the famous green tins are making a comeback, too.
How to use it in a sentence: “Better give dad a wide berth. He was on the Green Death last night.”
CHICKEN PARMY / PARMI
Victorians are wrong about a lot of things – toll roads, VB, house prices. But in no respect are they more wrong than they are in their insistence on calling a chicken parmigiana a “parma”. Apparently parts of Tasmania have been similarly corrupted.
Do we really need to waste time explaining why this contraction is an abomination? It’s right there in the name. PAR-MI-GIANA!!!
In 2018, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews weighed in, issuing a press release declaring “parma” the correct moniker based on a poll of over 30,000 people on his Facebook page. But remember, this is the same guy who famously queried why anyone would want to visit SA, so what would he know?
Anyway, in a press release about the Facebook poll, Andrews himself was forced to grant an exemption from the term ‘parma’ for Geelong, the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula where people apparently call it a ‘parmi’ or ‘parmy’ like we do (the right way) and which I hereby officially declare to be areas of Victoria that should be immediately annexed by South Australia.
How to use it in a sentence: “Had a parmy last night. It was bigger than my head.”
WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO?
Nothing gives a South Australian away at a BBQ or function quicker than this pointed question, which many argue is simply the fastest way to find some common ground. “Oh, you went to St Peters? Do you know Tristan Fotherington-Smyth?”
But we all know what it’s really about – especially those of us who went to garden variety public schools, virtually for free. It’s a way of working out whether you’re from old money, a member of the Bunyip Aristocracy and therefore worthy of the Grange or just the Bin 28.
How to use it in a sentence: “So what school did you go to?”
What SA lingo or slang did we miss? Post your suggestions below.
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