The Language of the Countryside

My blog about downs and wolds brought up the subject of the naming of landscape features. I've got to wondering why they stayed here in England and never made it to Australia. Goodness knows, we imported all their place names. The Australian landscape is, admittedly, different from the English landscape but not that different in the southern states.

I've gathered up quite a collection of words that are used here in England so I've decided to get to the bottom of their exact meaning, starting with those downs and wolds.

Down: a piece of high, uncultivated land or moor.

What would the equivalent piece of country be called in Australia? Scrub, perhaps. Two specific 'downs' in Australia come to mind: Barwon Downs in Victoria and the Darling Downs in Queensland.

Wold: gently rolling hill country.

Think of Ceres near Geelong and you have a perfect example of gently rolling hill country but they are the Ceres hills not the Ceres wolds.

Weald: a wooded or uncultivated area.

This would translate as 'the bush' in Australia.

Fen: a low, marshy or frequently flooded area.

That would be swampy or boggy land to an Aussie.

Broad: a network of shallow freshwater lakes traversed by slow-moving rivers.

The 'broad' in England is not a natural feature but came about by the gradual (unplanned) flooding of medieval peat diggings in parts of Norfolk and Suffolk.

To us that would just be a lake, pure and simple.

Fell: a hill or stretch of high moorland.

Victoria's High Plains come to mind.

Tor: a hill or rocky peak.

A hill is a hill in Australia.

Crag: a steep or rugged cliff or rock face.

That would be a cliff.

Clough: a steep valley or ravine.
Ravine would be understood in Australia.

Mere: a lake or a pond

If naturally occurring in Australia it would be a lake, or a billabong if your were in the outback, if man-made then it would be a dam or an ornamental lake.

Brook: a small stream.

We would call it a creek.

Stream: a small narrow river.

Once again, creek would cover it.

Dale: a valley.

We have lots of place names that use the suffix 'dale': Lilydale for example, but a valley is a valley.

Field: an area of open land, especially one planted with crops or pasture, typically bounded by hedges or fences.

That sounds like a paddock to me.

Meadow: A piece of grassland, especially one used for hay.
Still a paddock.

Wood: an area of land smaller than a forest that is covered with growing trees.

Bushland would describe the Australian version.

Moor: a track of open uncultivated upland typically covered with heather.

A scrubby plateau perhaps.

Corn: the chief cereal crop of a district (in England).

This one has puzzled me for a long time. To me corn, or maize, is that stuff that has big leaves and grows cobs, I now understand that when I read that someone is gathering his corn that it could be wheat, barley or oats.

I'm sure there are others that I've missed but that's quite a collection to be going on with.