Posted on 04/10/2021 4:44:56 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Australian pubs once had a reputation the world over as tough, brawling, hell for leather places where you could get into a fight at the drop of a hat.
Please do not make any Crocodile Dundee references.
I like the song “Leather & Lace” by Don Henley and Stevie Nicks.
Or a penal colony.
Loved the Aussies I met in the UK. Great people. Reminded me a lot of Texans with their spirit.
Well played!
Not it.
Turning someone elses full glass upside down is the sign there you want to fight.
Mark
Many men in the farming community were I spent three months would go to a bar and get into fights.
The fights were not, generally, unbounded, but somewhat friendly contests. The fights were voluntary.
Still, I remember one of my friends, a married man about 35, got his arm injured enough it affected his work performance for a couple of weeks.
The quickest way to get into a fight at an Australian pub?
Just show up.
I have some Australian friends that used to get pissed every time I said “A dingo ate my baby!” in a fake Australian accent in the early Aughts (~2003).
I often got the reply “That’s not funny, it really happened!”
It did happen but it is still fun to tease Aussies about it.
Well now hang on just a second there. It seems “hell for leather” may have been a British idiom that was modified into “hell-bent for leather” later in the US.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hell-bent—for—leather
As I understand it, it is an outgrowth of Irish culture. A few hours south of here, where there are groups of people (I live in Ontario north of the bulk of the population) I am told that not that long ago there were certain bars that one didn’t go into between 9 and 2 on a Saturday night unless one wanted a fight. The police didn’t interfere during that time, and the fighting was confined to those five hours a week.
My father said just call them Limeys. That was WWII.
I thought it was going to be a Romper Stomper video.
In Vietnam the 1st RAR bunch we co-patrolled with we called "Diggers".
I think it signifies “I’m done drinking” which means there’s only one reason left to be in the bar. :)
I was waiting for someone to answer the interviewer like this ...
“What’s the quickest way to get in a fight in an Australian bar?”
“Stroll in with a microphone and start asking stupid questions.”
or
“Why? Are you looking for one?”
In my neck of the woods we used Hell bent for election for the way the pols would run to gladhand their constituents in a hurry come election time.
Hell bent for leather was used less often.
It’s disrespectful to the Queen.
Don’t need to look it up. It was syndicated in the US back in the day. I saw a few episodes.
What station?
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