Vocabularies

1. claim

noun

When Dad left for the claim one morning he volunteered to take Pobby and Dingan with him to get some exercise while Kellyanne was at school.

It is a place where Dad works.

2. wobbling

adj.

The noise of a car drove into our ears and a four-wheel-drive police jeep came wobbling down the creamy red track that leads to our claim.

=shaking

3. startled

verb

My dad turned around, startled.

=astonish

=shock

4. figment

noun

I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

Something that is in one's imagination

5. rummaged

verb

He rummaged through piles of rocks. He looked behind trees, in front of trees, up trees and down trees.

Search haphazardly

6. ute

noun

One time he even took Kellyanne, Pobby and Dingan out to the Bore Baths in the ute.

A kind of big truck.

7. crackpot

noun

Lightning Ridge was full of flaming crackpots as far as I could see.

Weird person

8. Mello Yello

noun

I said, hiding my anger in a swig from my can of Mello Yello.

It's a kind of juice.

9. mates

noun

"I'm looking for my daughter’s imaginary friends and you’d better bloody well believe it, mate!”

=partner

10. opal

noun

My dad would come back from the opal mines covered in dust, his beard like the back end of a dog that’s shat all over its tail.

A precious stone.

11. grub

noun

She said they were quieter and better behaved than me and deserved the grub.

Informal term for a meal.

12. fossilized

adj.

There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth.

Being ossificated

13. mammoth

noun

There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth

An animal which looks like an elephant, but it has long tusks and long hair.

14. fairdinkum

adj.

“Fairdinkum?”

=Reliable

=very good

15. imaginary

adj.

Now, I was as much a rockhound as the next kid, but I wasn’t crazy enough to talk to imaginary friends, I’ll tell you that for nothing.

Not real.