Titanium Mug and Wood Fire
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Roger a little Billy history behind the Billy can/pot:
http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-167726350/view?partId=nla.obj-167726583#page/n2/mode/1up
THE AUSTRALIAN BILLY-CAN HAS AN
INTERESTING HISTORY
by
Richard Ross
THERE is an interesting his-
tory connected with the
Australian billy-can.
The story dates back to the early
gold-mining days of Victoria, when food
was fairly difficult to procure and still
more difficult to take to the diggings.
It was found necessary to import from
abroad large supplies of preserved pro-
visions—tinned meats, stews and soups,
&c. Among such supplies were cases
of canned meats from France. These
tins, branded -“Bouilli,” contained meaty
mixtures and thick, soup-like stews for
which the diggers developed a ready
taste.
The miners were unable to pronounce
the trade-name of the mixture, so it
was soon dubbed “Billy,” and in this
way was struck the name that was
soon to be adopted to distinguish the
“Bouilli” brand of provisions. (“Bouilli”
means boiled meat It is in the English
dictionary.)
The tins that contained the mixtures
were of a very handy size and, when
empty, many found use as water-boiling
vessels. That they made suitable
kettles and teapots was thus an auto-
matic discovery. And so the “billy”-
can was gradually introduced into gen-
eral use.
A quick-witted fellow, anticipating
that it had arrived to stay, decided at
once to arrange for the factory manu-
facture of cans of similar pattern, and
before long there appeared on the mar-
ket the billy-can, pint-pot and quart-
pot. with neatly made lids and wire
handles.
Today they are sold in all sizes
throughout Australasia and beyond by
the millions: still simple, they remain
much the same in shape and size as
they were decades ago. Like a smok-
ing pipe, the billy is not at its best until
it becomes stained and blackened with
usage—or, as the sundowner says, with
“experience.” Billy-boilng contests
used to be popular in the Australian
bush. The older the billy the quicker
it boils.
Experts carry billies burned to tissue-
paper thinness, keeping them in calico
coverings. Such billies will boil in two
minutes. The competitors in these
bush contests are required to gather
leaves and wood, light fires, race to the
creek and fill their billies, put them on
and stoke the fires until the cans have
boiled.
Surreptitiously dropping a stone into
another man’s billy is an old camp-fire
joke. When the other quart-pots are
boiling the “doped”‘ billy has still a
long way to go, and the owner usually
cannot understand it.
The Australian stockman’s outfit
should include four billies—of four
quarts, three quarts, two quarts and
one quart capacity; they fit inside each
other, so that the set can be carried by
one handle. The largest size is used to
carry water from the creek to the camp
fire, the next to boil the mutton, the
two-quart to hold the vegetables, and
the smallest for tea.
*
To boil a billy quickly, place length-
wise on the ground a petrol tin and cut
in it a round hole just smaller than
the billy; then cut out from a side of
the tin a square large enough to accom-
modate the sticks. Next punch small
holes all around the tin so as to create
a draught and when this has been done
make a fire inside and place the billy
over the hole.
The billy is an essential part of every
bushman’s equipment. The original
round, squat type is still the most popu-
lar, but several ingenious “improve-
ments,” including convertible and col-
apsible types, have been placed on the
market.
The drover’s battered tin quart-pot
is part of him. Being wider at the
bottom than at the top, it is steadier
and exposes more surface to the flame.
A folding handle at the side enables
it to be pushed into the fire, a mug
fits into the top. The three-pint size
is in most demand. A two-pint size is
often carried inside it.
The average bushman considers billy
tea the drink of drinks. Even many
wealthy squatters, while out on the run
drafting and dipping, &c, prefer it to
the kitchen-brewed tea—providing it
is properly made. For there is an art
in preparing good billy tea.
Effort was once made to affix the
trade name of “camp-kettle” to the
billy-can, but it failed. Australians
prefer the old tag. Henry Lawson’s
famous “While the Billy Boils” should
always remind us of the tradition that
clings to the simple invention —an Aus-
tralian heritage!
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