# Aussies: when kangaroos wander around in Canberra, where do they come \*from\*?\[Now on Aussie slang\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494 "2018-07-07T22:33:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/61 "2018-07-10T23:46:07Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > 1. Yes, certainly. While there’s no demarcation line The Outback is Central Australia and remote. There are very few population centres except Alice Springs (pop 25,000), the landscape is generally flat, few trees, no permanent rivers. The only significant industries are mining and grazing. > > The [Outback](http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiswY_xy5XcAhUtC6YKHQH7B5IQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ntwc.org.au%2F25827842-australian-bush-outback%2F&psig=AOvVaw06mTYFYNXhHLgG8WmD_ODC&ust=1531348069474438) … Thanks, and I understand. But FTR, this first image you cited is entitled “australian-bush-outback.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/62 "2018-07-11T00:08:06Z")
🙂 The Outback is somewhere more remote than wherever you are. While others may consider that you are in the Outback, you always think yourself in the bush. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/63 "2018-07-11T01:16:24Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > 🙂 > > The Outback is somewhere more remote than wherever you are. > > While others may consider that you are in the Outback, you always think yourself in the bush. My BIL grew up in an Indigenous community 300km outside Alice Springs. He gets quite shirty if people refer to such places as “the middle of nowhere.” To the people that live there, it’s the middle of somewhere! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/64 "2018-07-11T02:18:33Z")
“indigenous community” means…populated predominantly by or founded by Aborigines? ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/65 "2018-07-11T03:39:32Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > “indigenous community” means…populated predominantly by or founded by Aborigines? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/66 "2018-07-11T04:48:53Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Dingos are almost exactly comparable to coyotes. Do Americans parents worry that a coyote will go on a rampage at a local playground? > > … Whoosh? And did they ever consider just tying the kangaroos down, if they are a sports problem? ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/67 "2018-07-11T07:55:05Z")
Returning briefly to the factual question in the OP: Most Australian cities have “wildlife corridors” - sections of bush, scrub, creek linked together so that wildlife can get from one place to another. Koalas, for example, move quite long distances in search of the perfect tree to munch. Our house is in Brisbane (quite a large city) in the suburbs, but we back onto a section of bush that’s part of a koala corridor. We very regularly have wild koalas close to the house, and sometimes up the tree in the backyard. A couple of years ago a kangaroo wandered off the corridor (probably attracted by lovely lawn grass to munch) and ended up a few suburbs away. It just moved from garden to garden for a few weeks, then presumably found its way back into the bush. That sort of thing is rare in the big cities - except for possums, which are rodent-like city-dweller marsupials - but it happens every now and then. Canberra is only a few hundred thousand people, spread out in basically five different towns with lots of bush in between. When I worked there we had kangaroos that basically lived on the front lawn of the government office complex. In the heat of the day they disappeared - presumably into nearby shade - but they were there most mornings and evenings. It’s the wildlife you don’t see that’s probably more scary to foreigners. The estimate is that there’s a snake for every two houses, even in the city. Most of them aren’t dangerous, and they keep pests away, just like the scary looking spiders hunt the cockroaches. Snakes and spiders live in roof cavities, under decks, in gardens etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/68 "2018-07-11T07:58:44Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > “indigenous community” means…populated predominantly by or founded by Aborigines? Often they may be restricted access - off limits unless you have permission to visit. In places this is precisely because they aren’t “nowhere” - they are somewhere that is very important. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/69 "2018-07-11T08:48:55Z")
> [@Dioptre](#): > > It’s the wildlife you don’t see that’s probably more scary to foreigners. The estimate is that there’s a snake for every two houses, even in the city. Most of them aren’t dangerous… Um…snakes in southern Aus are almost universally dangerous. If you’re talking about the pythons in Qld that is one thing…but the snakes down here are all venomous. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/70 "2018-07-11T12:59:29Z")
Thanks all ! Lest you think I’m some dumb Yank who doesn’t know how to look things up, I just enjoy hearing first hand stories and details that one doesn’t necessarily find in books. Now, anyone have much experience with platypuses? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/71 "2018-07-11T14:02:32Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Um…snakes in southern Aus are almost universally dangerous. If you’re talking about the pythons in Qld that is one thing…but the snakes down here are all venomous. Indeed. Down here any snake is 90% of the time a brown snake. Deadly. By one metric no 2 most deadly on the planet. (No 1 being the inland taipan.) I get them in the garden ☹ It is a time honoured sport winding up tourists about our wildlife. If you want cute, you might like the quoll. Sometimes called the native cat. Carnivorous, they are not quite so stupid as the other marsupials. [Baby eastern quolls born on Australian mainland in landmark win for reintroduction program - ABC News](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-09/quoll-breeding-program-a-success/9958188) Platypus. They are difficult. Very elusive, hard to find, hard to breed. I’ve never seen one in the flesh. Its partner in the monotreme business, Echidnas on the other hand are pretty common, and I get them crossing my block. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/72 "2018-07-11T14:26:42Z")
\ \*I want a quoll! \* \ Gosh, **Francis** , you’re very fortunate to have all these critters visiting your yard (or maybe not, in the case of the poisonous snakes). I assume most residents are blase, having always lived around them. I wonder, are there any animals in the U.S. that Aussies are enchanted by, if for no other reason they never see them at home? ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/73 "2018-07-11T15:15:08Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I wonder, are there any animals in the U.S. that Aussies are enchanted by, if for no other reason they never see them at home? When Aussies come to visit me in CA, they ALWAYS take photos of the squirrels. There are no diurnal (day active) mammals in Australia, everything is either crepuscular (dawn/dusk active) or nocturnal. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/74 "2018-07-11T15:47:21Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > When Aussies come to visit me in CA, they ALWAYS take photos of the squirrels. There are no diurnal (day active) mammals in Australia, everything is either crepuscular (dawn/dusk active) or nocturnal. It’s so funny that anyone would be interested in those annoying little bastards. I mean, they are cute, playful little buggers but damn do they do a number on my garden. There’s a family of them that lives in the tree surrounding my backyard and it’s a constant battle to get their filching paws of my bird feeders. So, Aussie mates, if you’re ever in the Southeastern U.S., you’re welcome to stop by and see the [del] rotten, thieving[/del] adorable little creatures getting up to their squirrel antics. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/75 "2018-07-11T16:06:28Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > When Aussies come to visit me in CA, they ALWAYS take photos of the squirrels. There are no diurnal (day active) mammals in Australia, everything is either crepuscular (dawn/dusk active) or nocturnal. I live in an urban apartment/garden complex so lousy with squirrel populations it was once written up in a zoology journal. I never realized it was remarkable until an Israeli visited me and would constantly interrupt our conver… SQUIRREL! ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/76 "2018-07-11T18:06:06Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Walkabout started as a shorthand for the behaviour of Aboriginal people in the 19th century, who would leave what they were doing without explanation to attend to social and religious obligations. Because this was usually secret business, even from other indigenous people they would not give warning or say where they had been. > > Its taken on a more general usage for anyone going off without an apparent reason or plan, so a few old folks I know who like to ramble around talk about it as going walkabout. Or your car keys may have gone walkabout if they are not where you think you left them. > > As well as outback and the bush, there is also Woop Woop [not to be confused with Wagga Wagga]. You can get a good view of the Never Never from there. Oh. I understood walkabout was a tradition that when reaching manhood, a boy would go on a solitary journey for a month or two to “find himself” (or whatever the aboriginal equivalent of the hippie concept). Basically, it was part spiritual with a component of, I assume, genetic selection to weed out those basically incompetent at survival. I recall some stories about westerners encountering solitary aborigines on walkabout. Plus, as I mentioned, some North American tribes as I understand it had a similar tradition. it was a sufficiently widespread concept that the word entered the world-wide English vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/77 "2018-07-11T18:10:07Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > …Woop Woop [not to be confused with Wagga Wagga]. You can get a good view of the Never Never from there. 😕 Can you elaborate/explicate? WAG from “Never Never”–\>“Way the fuck off the planet/off the reservation”/"in the “REALLY-out there-bush”?)–right? And the first two: meaning? source? how widespread–or arcane pop culture reference? (Arcane even to Aussies, let alone civilians of other continents.) ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/78 "2018-07-11T18:11:24Z")
Mundane wildlife is always interesting to the people who don’t have that wildlife. And it changes too. I remember when I used to get excited seeing bald eagles, but now that they are everywhere, I just don’t have the same thrill as I did 20 years ago. Beaver are the same way. Once you see something enough, it just becomes day to day. I can remember as a kid that my relatives would tell us how lucky we were to have so many deer just living around us which always confused me. Now that the East Coast is polluted with them, I’m more likely to hear sighs of frustration from them about their gardens or near misses in their cars. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/79 "2018-07-11T18:17:52Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > …I remember when I used to get excited seeing bald eagles, but now that they are everywhere, I just don’t have the same thrill as I did 20 years ago… Jeez, where are bald eagles “everywhere?” In what kind of urban-or-otherwise environment? Because I would def…“BALD EAGLE!” [This post is also sort of like OP, in fact :)] ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494/80 "2018-07-11T18:23:04Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I live in an urban apartment/garden complex so lousy with squirrel populations it was once written up in a zoology journal. I never realized it was remarkable until an Israeli visited me and would constantly interrupt our conver… SQUIRREL! I remember on a visit to India noticing all the monkeys everywhere, in the wild and in the towns… until I figured out - North America has squirrels, Asia and Africa have monkeys. Monkeys - cuter, squirrels - less annoying. A remark I made to a fellow from New Zealand - squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails and good PR. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aussies-when-kangaroos-wander-around-in-canberra-where-do-they-come-from-now-on-aussie-slang/817494.md?page=5)