six bob a day tourist

English

Alternative forms

• five bob a day tourist (rare)
• six-bob-a-day tourist

Etymology

A reference to the soldiers′ pay of six shillings a day.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

six bob a day tourist (plural six bob a day tourists)

1. (Australia, historical, slang) An Australian soldier serving in World War I, especially a volunteer.
   • 1956, F. Eric Hitchins, Tangled Skeins: A Historic Survey of Australian Wool Marketing, page 81:

     On brief leaves, as a “six-bob-a-day tourist” during World War I, one had learned to love London, […] .

   • 1985, Janet Morice, editor, Six Bob a Day Tourist, Penguin, →ISBN:
   • 1990, Bill Gammage, The Broken Years: Australian soldiers in the Great War, page 11:

     He professed no sense of right, no statement of belief: he was a ‘six bob a day tourist’, and even in that age of conviction he was not alone.

Derived terms

• tourist (abbreviated form also used during WWII)