Billabong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other meanings, see Billabong (disambiguation)
Billabong is an Australian English word used to refer to an oxbow lake, a stagnant pool of water attached to a waterway. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end. The word is derived from two Indigenous Australian words: "billa" meaning "creek" and "bong" meaning "dead".
Billabongs appear relatively often in Australian literature. One of the most well-known references is in the opening line of Banjo Paterson's famous poem "Waltzing Matilda".
The name Billabong has been adopted as the brand name for a popular brand of Australian surfing wear sold around the world by Billabong International.
Billabong is also the name given to a chocolate flavoured ice cream manufactured by the Peter's company in Perth, Western Australia, presumably because the brown colour matches the colour of most billabongs.
