Australian Word Map

boondie¹

noun a soft conglomerate of yellow sand serving as a missile in children's throwing games. Compare coondie. Also, boondy. [? from a WA Aboriginal language]
Contributor's comments: Used Boondie when at school in Kalgoorlie 1958. Chucked a few too. Kids used to have boondie fights in the slime dumps. Never heard it in SA.

Contributor's comments: Clumps of dried sand that represent rocks but crumble on impact when thrown. Usually found in yellow sand piles on building sites etc. Also Boondie Fight when you throw them at each other.

Contributor's comments: In Western Australia we called boondies the clumps of sand at the beach and on building sites, there was a competition of throwing boondies at a wall and seeing whose boon[d]ie left the most sand on the wall.

Contributor's comments: This word is used a lot in W.A. My friends and I love the word but feel that the spelling as it is on your site is not correct. That said I cannot tell you what the spelling is because no one can agree. I would need to talk to a language expert to find out.

Contributor's comments: I remember boondies being larger rocks (still big enough to throw) and smaller ones called coondies (same pronunciation) so you could have a sand coondie (or boondie) fight with your mates on the sand pile at a building site ! :-)

Contributor's comments: Growing up in Perth in the 70's, we used to throw Sand Boondies/Boondys at each other. Sand Boondies were lumps of compacted soil used to top dress lawns in the Summer, I think. Our Sand Boondies sound a little less brutal than the stone variety as they disintegrated on contact.

Contributor's comments: A sand bomb made from the golden sand found outside building sites - they are best made when the sand is slightly damp.

Contributor's comments: When I was a kid in WA a boondie included a clump of yellow sand, such as would be formed if it had rained and dried out (or you carefully spat on it). Boondies were great throwing, keeping together in-flight before a quite painful impact and a satisfying explosion of yellow sand.

Contributor's comments: Used this expression as a kid growing up in WA, but boondies were not actually rocks but lumps of yellow sand (from piles on people's lawns prior to topsoiling) which usually broke up on impact.

Contributor's comments: Boondie - this can also be a solid clump of dirt, so that when you threw it at someone, it disintegrated.

Contributor's comments: Boondies -I think they also tend to be the sort of rocks you'd throw - and they include those yellow sand clusters - the sort you throw against a wall and they splatter... important memory of a real WA boondie.....

Contributor's comments: I too threw a few of these in my youth. I've no idea how to spell it, but I do know 'boondie' is pronounced as in 'put'. But I recall the word had a different meaning in Perth, in the early 70s. (Don't know about currently). Couch lawn is common in the area, and each year many proud home owners would top dress their lawns with sand. The particular sand available for this in the area formed a nice hard crust after a little water was applied. Come to think of it, this is a feature of the beaches there too. Well when the crust was broken up (usually by walking on it, or the grass growing underneath?) it left a yard full of boondies, just perfect for throwing. Best of all, when they hit the target, they disintegrated, stinging smartly, but not doing any damage!

Contributor's comments: We always referred to boondies not as rocks but as clumps of sand that we threw at each other I wonder if anyone else is familiar with this definition.

Contributor's comments: I think a boondie refers to a lump of sand or gravel rather than a rock - a boondie fight usually took place near a pile of sand.

Contributor's comments: A small ball of compacted, hardened sand.

Contributor's comments: Yes we through bondies as kids but they were "rocks" formed when sand or small stones were compressed together by some natural process, usually found in old piles of yellow sand.

Contributor's comments: This word for stone was widely used among schoolkids when I was growing up in the 60's at Quairading, WA in the wheatbelt. I haven't heard it much since.

Contributor's comments: Can also be said as sand bundy which is the ball of sand you make and then throw at people as part of a friendly fight/game at such places as the beach. Bundies can also be pre-made in the form of the clumps of sand in yellow sand mounds, often found at home building sites. It would then be customary to throw this clump of sand (bundy) at someone: "That bundy hit me right in the face."

Contributor's comments: A small rock usually made of compacted sand, preferably builders' yellow sand, used in chasey or brandy games: Hey, look at all the boondies in this pile, let's hide behind it and throw em at your sister!

Contributor's comments: A clump of dirt that you throw at someone, that breaks on impact: "He was dodging the bundies she threw at him."