THE COCKIE FARMER -

A lot of people know that farmers are often referred to as cockies but not many know the origins of this name.

In the early days when people first started to clear the land of trees the main method of clearing for many was to ring-bark the trees and wait for them to die. The trees were then cut and set on fire but the process took a lot of time and meanwhile grubs and borers attacked the trees.

This led large numbers of cockatoos to gather around the trees and feed on the insects attacking the wood. The aspiring farmers looked as though they were doing little but grow cockatoos and were given the title 'Cockie farmer', later this became abbreviated to just 'Cockie'.

Cooked Parrot

1 parrot 1 pot of boiling water 1 rock Remove feathers and gut the bird. Place in boiling water and add a small rock. When the rock is soft the parrot is ready to eat. (Alternately: Boil for 2 days, remove rock, remove parrot, throw parrot away and eat the rock.)

We take it from this recipe that parrots are a wee bit tough. This is obviously more of a joke than a real recipe but if you want to learn more about how the early pioneers actually did cook, make beer and generally survive you can read more on our main website.

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