Let’s start with a multiple choice question. What is an emu bob?

(a) the act or process of picking up litter;

(b) a dance;

(c) the act or process of searching an area of ground for something; or

(d) both (a) and (c). 

Although it does sound like a dance, (b) is incorrect. The correct answer is (d). It can also refer to a group of people picking up litter.

Emu bob started out as a verb in the 1920s and meant ‘to pick up pieces of timber, roots, etc., after clearing or burning’ (Australian National University). Twenty years later it had come to specifically mean picking up litter and by the 1970s it had become a noun.

I remember first hearing the expression when I was in primary school. Our principal made an announcement that we would be doing an emu bob to help tidy up the school. The pupils spent about half an hour picking up all of the litter that had found its way onto the school grounds. The children took great delight in pretending to be emus with their long necks bending down looking for food, but we, of course, were looking for litter.

litter – small pieces of rubbish that have been left lying on the ground in public places

sound like – to seem like something, from what is said or written

verb – a word or phrase that describes an action, condition, or experience

noun – a word that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance, or quality

principal – the person in charge of a school

pupil – a person, especially a child at school, who is being taught

emu – a large Australian bird with a long neck and grey or brown feathers, which cannot fly, but can run fast