[Editor: This untitled article, regarding the Gallipoli campaign (First World War), was published in The Argus (Melbourne), 24 June 1915. It was subsequently reprinted in The Casterton News, 5 July 1915, under the title of “Australians in Gallipoli: Altering the map”.]
[Australians in Gallipoli: Altering the map]
The Australians have literally altered the map of Gallipoli, and have impressed upon it their own individuality. Monash Gully, Pope’s Hill, and Courtney’s Hill have been christened to perpetuate the names of some of our officers, and Maclaurin’s Hill has been reverently named after a very gallant gentleman who fell fighting a good fight.
Australian slang finds a place in the new map. Plugger’s Plateau is picturesque, and suggests a story; and what has come to be known as the great Australian adjective has been used for once, apparently, with perfect propriety and full meaning.
It will be a pity if ever these names are rubbed off the map, for our soldiers have surely earned the right to christen the hills and dales of which they have taken possession. And some of the names are so eloquent compared with those given by the British in France. “Bloody Angle” is much more expressive than “Hill 60.”
“The Labyrinth,” named by the French, is better, but it cannot compare with “Dead Man’s Ridge” in Gallipoli.
Source:
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 24 June 1915, p. 8
Also published in:
Portland Guardian (Portland, Vic.), 25 June 1915, p. 2
The Casterton News and the Merino and Sandford Record (Merino, Vic.), 5 July 1915, p. 4 (article entitled “Australians in Gallipoli: Altering the map”)
Editor’s notes:
the great Australian adjective = a phrase which refers to the word “bloody”; the phrase was made even more famous, or infamous, by the poem “The Great Australian Adjective” (1897) by W. T. Goodge
plugger = someone who does the everyday or ordinary work of a job or task (from the wider usage of the base word, e.g. “he just plugs away at it”); someone who works very hard at a monotonous or ordinary job or task; foot soldier, labourer, worker (can also refer to someone who “plugs”, or promotes, a product — especially regarding the promotion of recording artists or recordings; in modern Australian slang it can refer to a “thong”, or “flip-flop”, being a type of footwear, usually made of rubber, with a strap which is held in place by a plug)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
Leave a Reply