Colin Buchanan has written a tribute to the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. There’s an MP3 file of the song that you can listen to. Here’s the chorus:
And wasn’t he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrakin
Throwin’ it all out there
With his heart upon his sleeve
Goodbye
Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve
One question I had was, what is a khaki larrakin? From answers.com,
n. A light olive brown to moderate or light yellowish brown.
and…
n. A person given to comical or outlandish behavior.
Larrikin, an Australian slang term for a clownish or rowdy person, became a popular word since the untimely death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter who was killed by a stingray while filming a documentary…
Sounds like I have just learnt a new Australian slang from an American website :)
Yeah.. khaki is a colour generally worn by national park rangers and so on. Khaki is the colour of the uniform that Steve wore.
I thought khaki was an international term.. maybe not.. maybe it’s Aussie slang too!
Larrikin has been around for as long as I remember.. which isn’t that long (24 yrs). I guess it used more commonly in rural country areas as is all Australian slang. Answers.com is right.. it referrs to a “joker” who gets a bit of attention.
Hmm. I guess I know what khaki is, but just the phrase khaki larrikin.
Despite being living in Australia for more than 16 years I just haven’t paid much attention to all those Aussie slangs. Always been living in cities of heavy multiculturalism does not help…