waratah

See also: Waratah

English

a Gippsland waratah, Telopea oreades

Wikispecies

Etymology

From Dharug warada.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔɹəˌtɐː/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːɹətɑː/, /ˌwɒɹəˈtɑː/

Noun

waratah (plural waratahs)

1. Any of several species of plants in the genus Telopea, native to southeastern Australia.
   • 1925, C. W. Peck, Australian Legends: Tales Handed Down from the Remotest Times by the Autocthonous Inhabitants of Our Land:

     There are many legends concerning the waratah--Australia's most glorious flower and all her own, for it does not occur in any other part of the world, while its supposed rival, the wattle, is as common in all parts of the Southern Hemisphere as it is in Australia.

   • 1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 156:

     Acacias in blossom in the distance […]; leafy stipple of light and shade on the leaves, vivid flowers and bitter little fruits, and the waratah, like a blackfellow's firestick, red as a glowing coal.

2. A Y-shaped steel fencing post or stake.
   • 1968, Albert Robert Acheson, River Control and Drainage in New Zealand: And Some Comparisons with Overseas Practices, page 65:

     At intervals of half a chain along each cable, 6 ft waratah Y section standards are driven at an angle into the bank to within a few inches of ground level, and the cables secured to them with No. 8 gauge galvanised wire.

References

• Troy, Jakelin (1994). “The Sydney Language”, Macquarie Aboriginal Words. Sydney: Macquarie Library, 61–62.