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emu parade
the picking up of litter from an area, usually by an organised group of people, often as a school punishment. Compare emu bob, emu patrol, emu stalk, emu walk.
Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] Also Emu Parade.
Contributor's comments: When growing up in the sixties west of Mackay [Qld] it was only ever referred to as an emu parade, not patrol.
Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] "Emu Parade" not "Emu Patrol" - meaning: picking up rubbish.
Contributor's comments: I grew up in the Central Burnett [Qld] where the words used were always an emu PARADE.
Contributor's comments: [Perth informant] A similar term was used at school and other places to pick up litter or when a small item was lost and a wide search was needed to find it. I cannot remember the exact term that was used - may have been "emu stalk" or parade.
Contributor's comments: We also called it an Emu Parade, at school in Brisbane in the 80s.
Contributor's comments: Emu parade for a group clean up in a school or by a group generally is widely used in SA as well, eg All the students at school and several community groups went on emu patrols to clean up the town on Clean up Australia Day.
Contributor's comments: We used to have 'Emu Parades' at school on the far west coast of SA (usually when the whole class was in strife).
Contributor's comments: Emu Parade was a term used for picking up litter when I was at school in Victoria. Cannot remember how widespread it was used but it is a term I recognise.
Contributor's comments: I also remember it from primary school in the 50's on the Central Coast NSW. "Emu" would refer to the resemblance to an emu while walking bending over, "pecking"/picking up the rubbish off the ground.
Contributor's comments: I remember emu parades very clearly form my youth at Mt Gravatt State School in the 1960s. It meant exactly that - picking up stones. I wonder what happened to them then?
Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] a large group of students forced to comb the school grounds and pick up rubbish: Principal: "I was walking around the quad today and was appalled by the amount of litter, blah, blah, blah, so before you go off to Period 7, we're going to have an emu parade." Students: [collective groan]
Contributor's comments: At our school in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, it was called an Emu bob.
Contributor's comments: At boarding school in Geelong (Vic) in the 1950s it was always 'emu parade', never 'emu bob'.
Contributor's comments: We used the term "emu parade" at school in the 1970's/80's in Inverell NSW.
Contributor's comments: Can also mean people at a racecourse picking up betting slips hoping to find a discarded winner. I've heard this usage at Moonee Valley, Geelong, Camperdown and Warrnambool.
Contributor's comments: 'Emu parade' .. was our version of it, esp. checking a camp site before leaving it after packing up! My mother, born in 1921 in SA probably was the first one I heard it from. It seems when we used it as kids no one commented on it!
Contributor's comments: Scab duty was what we called the emu parade type punishment given for playing up in class or out in the playground.