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ging
a "shanghai" - a forked stick with rubber band attached to each fork and a leather pouch joining the rubber bands, used like a slingshot to hurl small stones: He shot a bird with his ging. Compare dong-eye, gonk, shanghai, slingshot.
Contributor's comments: A ging also "belongs" to WA as well as Victoria.
Contributor's comments: I was born in Canberra, and never came across the term ging, meaning slingshot, until I came to Western Australia; where it is used extensively, and has been since at least the 1940's as far as I can ascertain.
Contributor's comments: Also called a sling shot in other parts. Usually made from a branch with a Y shape and rubber stretched between to two upper arms and used to fire rocks and honky nuts: "He used his ging to shoot out the street lights on his way home from scouts."
Contributor's comments: Having spent my youth in coastal Queensland (eg Bundaberg, Maryborough, Ingham) we used the terms "ging" and "shanghai" interchangeably.
Contributor's comments: In my youth a slingshot was always referred to as a ging. I was born and live in Perth, WA. The term "ging" was commonly used throughout my youth.
Contributor's comments: My dad has always talked about using 'gings' when he was a kid. He still has one! Ging is still a word used here in WA. I have heard form a friend who lived in both NSW and Vic that they called it a 'gonk'.
Contributor's comments: When growing up in Townsville in NQ the word was very common amongst children. I do remember that the town had a fair share of people who had moved from Victoria which would explain this.
Contributor's comments: The use of "ging" was quite common as an alternative for shanghai in the Wide Bay area of SE Qld.
Contributor's comments: When I went to primary shool in Brisbane in the 50's, "ging" was a standard word for slingshot. It was then not restricted to Victoria.
Contributor's comments: Although 'shanghai' was the standard usage in Rockhampton (central Queensland) in the late 1950s, 'ging' was used there as a slang alternative.
Contributor's comments: The word 'ging' was also used frequently hear in the South Western districts of WA throughout my childhood in the 70's. Was also strongly associated with the words 'jelly rubber' (or gidgie rubber) which was used as the propellant.
Contributor's comments: "Ging" is well established in WA as well - same meaning (slingshot).
Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] When I was a kid, a ging was different to a shanghai. It was like an elasticised sling shot - no forked stick, just two pieces of elastic grasped in one hand. More easily concealed than a shanghai, It took real skill, but was possessed of awesome power, especially if made of old inner tube.
Contributor's comments: [Adelaide informant] Ging was used here in S.A. in the 1940s and 1950s.
Contributor's comments: I grew up in Dalby in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. 'Ging' was the main word used for 'shanghai' throughout the Fifties.
Contributor's comments: A device sometimes known as a shanghai, consisting of a forked stick, two strong rubber bands and a small leather patch tied to the rubber bands, used for shooting stones: "Can you shoot birds with that ging?"
Contributor's comments: Ging was used commonly in Seaford in the early fifties.
Contributor's comments: When growing up in East Gippsland, a shanghai was a forked stick or wire with rubber-bands attached, while a ging was a length of bicycle inner tube used for the same purpose, but without the forked stick. One end was gripped in one hand, wrapped back over the thumb. The other end had a leather pouch attached for the projectile. When stretched and released, you had to carefully time the lowering of the lead hand. Too soon and the projectile went low, too late and the projectile went into your own knuckle.
Contributor's comments: Where I lived, a ging was usually made from a piece of heavy fencing wire; it could be fitted with a leather pouch to throw stones or rubber bands to throw either tightly folded paper V's, sometimes chewed to keep them together; highly concealable ones were made from bike spokes being no bigger than a playing card and easy to hide.
Contributor's comments: I've only heard WA people use the term 'ging'. Without exception, people who came here from other States have never heard the expression.
Contributor's comments: The term ging was commonly used when I was a kid growing up in Biloela in Central Queensland in the fifties when nearly all kids had a sling shot.
Contributor's comments: I migrated from the UK to WA in 1964 (age 11). I first heard the term ging used then to describe what I knew as a catapult (otherwise described as a forked stick, innertube elastic and leather pocket to project stones much further than you could throw them)
Contributor's comments: In Preston Vic. we made gings from bricklayer's reinforcing wires and cut up bicycle tubes. The stones shot from these were called yonnies.
Contributor's comments: I always referred to my shangai as a ging and was forever asking "where's me ging' as a kid in country Bundaberg in the forties.My mother would sew a strap on a flour bag to carry the "ammo" to stop me wearing out my pants pockets. An endless supply of "ammo" came with the bitumen road in the form of excess blue metal. (crushed basalt)