boobialla

English

Alternative forms

• boobyalla

Etymology

Said to be from a southeastern Tasmanian language term bubiala.

Noun

boobialla (plural boobiallas)

1. (Australia) Any 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. [from 19th c.]
   • 2001, Inga Clendinnen, Tiger's Eye: A Memoir‎^[1], page 63:

     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.

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

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

   • 2007, Graeme Kinross-Smith, Long Afternoon of the World‎^[2], page 184:

     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.

   • 2010, Ray Kirkwood, Variant Breed‎^[3], page 191:

     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.

Translations

plant of the genus Myoporum