Black Stump - Vernacular Formulations

Vernacular Formulations

The term ‘black stump’ is used in various formulations. The most common are:

• ‘beyond the black stump’ or ‘back of the black stump’ – in the outback; remote from civilisation. The following quote from John Wynnum’s I’m a Jack, all Right (1967; p. 18) conveys this meaning: “It’s way back o’ Bourke. Beyond the Black Stump. Not shown on the petrol station maps, even.” In 1956 British novelist Neville Shute published "Beyond the Black Stump", a novel set in the 1940/50s, contrasting the social mores of a still remote Western Australian sheep station and a small town in Oregon, USA, which still thought of itself as a frontier town despite the Cadillac dealership and the fast food joint.

• ‘this side of the black stump’ – in the world known to the speaker; anywhere in the general community. The following is from Vision Splendid by Tom Ronan (1954; p. 264): “You’re looking... at the best bloody station bookkeeper this side of the black stump.”

Another use of the phrase ‘black stump’ in the Australian vernacular, which relates more to the real object than an abstract concept of landscape, is the local term for the old State Office Block in Sydney (now demolished). The high-rise building was dark-grey in colour and Sydney residents – “with the local talent for belittling anything that embarrassed them with its pretensions” – dubbed it ‘the Black Stump’.