he always uses <i>commence</i> followed
by the infinitive instead of by the verbal noun, as "The dog
commenced to bark."

1896. Modern talk in the train:

"The horse started to stop, and the backers commenced to
hoot."

<hw>Station</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally the house with the
necessary buildings and home-premises of a sheep-run, and still
used in that sense: but now more generally signifying the run
and all that goes with it. <i>Stations</i> are distinguished
as <i>Sheep-stations</i> and <i>Cattle-stations</i>.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. (Introd.):

"They . . . will only be occupied as distant stock-stations."

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 120:

"Their [squatters'] huts or houses, gardens, paddocks, etc.,
form what is termed a station, while the range of country over
which their flocks and herds roam is termed a run."

1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 35:

"The lecturer assured his audience that he came here to prevent
this country being a squatting station."

1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads,' p. 17:

"The sturdy station-children pull the bush flowers on my
grave."

1890. E. D. Cleland, `The White Kangaroo,' p. 4:

"Station--the term applied in the colonies to the homesteads of
the sheep-farmers or squatters."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood,'Miner's Right,' c. xviii. p. 171:

"Men who in their youth had been peaceful stockmen and
station-labourers."

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 125:

"I'm travelen' down the Castlereagh and I'm a station-hand,
I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand,
And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day,
But there's no demand for a stationhand along the Castlereagh."

<hw>Station-jack</hw>, <i>n</i>. a form of bush cookery.

1853. `The Emigrant's Guide to Australia.' (Article on
Bush-Cookery, from an unpublished MS. by Mrs. Chisholm],
pp. 111-12:

"The great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out
of salt beef and flour . . . let the Sunday share be soaked on
the Saturday, and beat it well . . . take the . . . flour and
work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it,
and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as
`<i>Station jack</i>.'"

<hw>Stavewood</hw>, <i>n</i>. another name for the <i>Flindosy
Beech</i>. See <i>Beech</i>.

<hw>Stay-a-while</hw>, <i>n</i>. a tangled bush; sometimes
called <i>Wait-a-while</