Don’t get lost in the mallee! Technically, there are a number of meanings for mallee, including any of various Australian species of Eucalyptus or a tree with growth habits similar to one of these trees. It is also used in the phrases fit as a mallee bull and strong as a mallee bull, which respectively mean to be very healthy and very strong.
Finally, its other very common colloquial use is for any remote, isolated or unsettled area, or the remote outback in general. This is thought to be Australian Aboriginal in origin, from the Wembawemba language of southern NSW and Victoria.
It is seen here in use in this poem from Leon Gellert in 1964.
The Brolga or Australian crane
Holds dancing orgies on the plain;
And students of the Russian Ballet
Have crept in crowds across the mallee
Far beyond the desert grasses
To where the Brolga holds its classes
–LEON GELLERT, 1964.
