User talk:Yeti Hunter/Sandbox

Whether or not to be standalone article

Credit to your stub here. I didn't believe it at first, but I can see now that it could probably stay as a standalone article and get promoted to mainspace. Still, I'll say what I was originally thinking... Could it be simply absorbed into the history of South Australia? After all it is all about that topic and might never extend beyond 3 sentences worth of information. Donama (talk) 00:58, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Disagree with Domana - there is plenty for an article. See here and here (if you have access) for discussions on state nicknames. An interesting letter to the editor can be found here. Old articles can be found origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here, origin&searchLimits= here and origin&searchLimits= here.

There seems to be three main stories about the eating of crows:

1. South Australian miners crossing to Bendigo for the gold rush and short of food
2. South Australian wheat farmers starving in a drought resorting to eating crows
3. Cornish miners mistaking "crows" for "rooks" and making "Rooky Pie" as they (apparently) did in Cornwall.

Lots more on Trove, no doubt and clearly more than enough for an article. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 01:03, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I submit! Donama (talk) 01:17, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Transcripts from news items

Just pasting here should it be useful: Donama (talk) 01:17, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Crows For The Cafe
THERE must be a culinary use for every bird, so don't despise the common crow, or even the hungry shag after this.
I met Charlie Dean yesterday after he had been away among the wool clips for five months, and, as usual, had several good stories from him. He told me that when he was at Nowranie station, in the Southern Riverina, the Chinese cook there was collecting all the crows that the boundary riders got. He also had traps of his own at the homestead. He kept all the birds in a cage, 3ft. by 8 ft., and fed them until they were ready to be sent away.
"He sent at least 100 crows to a cafe in Melbourne," Mr. Dean said. "When I went down to see him, he had any amount of dry ones hanging up. I think he sends these overseas and saves the galls for Chinese herbalists.
"I asked him what they do with the crows in Melbourne and he said that they mix them with soups and dim sims. He has a wonderful garden at Nowranie, and grows vegetables of all sorts."

Source: Out among the People By Vox in The Advertiser Tuesday 24 December 1935, Adelaide

Coolgardie News
"Already the crows, the only animal food in the district, are being watched with covetous eyes, and but for fear of the terrible stigma of orow-eaters which will ever after be cast upon anyone daring to touch these scavengers of Australian camps, many a "white eye" would ere this have appeased the flesh hunger which is gnawing at the vitals of the whole camp.
South Australians have never been freed from the reproach of having eaten of the flesh of the white-eyed bird when pressed by hunger on the road to the Victorian diggings in 1852, and even now the residents of the adjoining colony (ed note: South Australia) are taunted with being crow-eaters".

Source: origin&searchLimits= Mining Intelligence in the West Australian Wednesday 14 March 1894, Perth -- Mattinbgn (talk) 01:21, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

The Register (Adelaide, SA, Thursday 19 September 1901, page 6)
To the Editor.
Sir— Is it not too bad of Mr. Gill to rake up from the dustheap of the past an opprobrious nickname grown mustier with age, and to fasten the unclean thing round the neck of South Australia? 'Croweater' she may have been in the past, but surely, after so many years of reformed life, that fact might be allowed to be forgotten. But, no! Mr. Gill thinks otherwise, if he thinks at all, and puts a magpie on an ornamental dessert plate as the emblem of the state. 
We know it is a magpie, but what of others? Will they be content with our statement, or will they not brush that aside? Will they not think it is a crow, or say it is a crow, in spite of all our references to authority and Mr. Gill? And whv. Mr. Editor, a magpie? A flaunting, loquacious, thievish, and disreputable bird— worse than the laughing jackass, who is merely a fool. Surely if we must have an emblem a better can be found. 
I am. Sir, &c, 
CROWEATER.

Source: Letter to the Editor, The Register (Adelaide, SA, Thursday 19 September 1901, page 6) Cheers, Bahudhara (talk) 06:40, 13 October 2011 (UTC)