It’s one of my husband’s more colourful expressions. In spite of the fact that we live in tropical North Queensland, this saying is thrown around our house on a regular basis. It is mostly applied when warning others to stay out of trouble, avoid danger, or shun the pitfalls of life. Of cause there are many other words of wisdom: ‘Make a peewee fight an emu’ is one I have recently used in my writing, and my Dad’s favourite and highly poignant saying: ‘You never see a hearse pulling a trailer.’
The point of it all? – We Aussies love a saying. Life’s lessons disguised as humourous analogies that makes us laugh. It’s the larrikin way, tackling the serious problems with a good dose of light-hearted poetry. I love it. It reminds me of who we are and where we’ve come from.
If you have any favourites to share please leave a comment and let me know. (No rude ones please – we all know they’re out there but I prefer the clean and repeatable.)
Will also leave you with this perla: When recently discussing the state of our political leaders it was agreed that they; ‘couldn’t run a choko vine over a chook house’. LOL.
Rose Dee. Author. Redemptive Fiction 
Slicker than a rat with a gold tooth and one I use all the time.Flat out like a lizard drinking and when really busy flat out like 10 lizards drinking. You have lead me to ponder Do lizards drink fast and why??!!
That’s the great thing about the ‘Aussie saying’ – it doesn’t make any sense when first said, but it leads us to ponder. Tes offered a new one: Can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – Beaudy.