Belyando spew

Meaning

Noun

• An illness afflicting shearers, characterised by vomiting after meals and presumed to have been due to the hard work of shearing bent over in stifling heat (though more likely due to a local grass).

Related

Similar words

• Barcoo sickness, Barcoo spew, Barcoo vomit, Burdekin vomit

Origin

• Ultimately of Australian Aboriginal derivation; named for the Belyando River of central Queensland.
  The expression dates from no later 1891, from when it was in use in a shearer′s song.