There are 1 results of your search for brinnie.
brinnie
noun a small stone: *Brinnie: A stone a bit smaller than a yonnie, used in brinnie fights. –PHILLIP ADAMS, 1974. Compare boondie2, gibber, gonnie, goolie, ronnie, yonnie. Also, brinny. [? Aborig.]
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] If a brinnie fight got a bit too vigorous, the stones thrown got gradually larger until someone would shout "Fair go - you're chucking yonnies!"
Contributor's comments: The definition is correct. Used in Preston and Northcote [Melbourne Region] when I was a lad, 1953-1960's.
Contributor's comments: Melbourne (1960s): I was aware of "brinnie" but my friends used "yonnie" - especially those who had originally come from Melbourne's western suburbs.
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne region informant] I have never heard of the term. We would have used yonnie always. I have always lived in the eastern suburbs and taught for 30 years in primary schools and still have never heard of the term.
Contributor's comments: Shanghai fights were very popular growing up in the 60s in Victoria. I remember fights with 5 or 10 kids a side. We used to use little hard berries as ammunition. Didn't do as much damage as brinnies, but jeez they stung.
Contributor's comments: In Bendigo where I grew up in the 50s, we called brinnies the much larger, rounder rocks which you used in the brinnie wars mentioned by Phillip Adams. We callled yonnies, the flat, smooth rocks that were used for skimming over water.
Contributor's comments: Never used brinnie in eastern Melbourne, a gibber was a flat stone thrown across water, but yonnies were what one fought with.
Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] When I was at school in the 50's we used to call all throwing stone brinnies.
Contributor's comments: Phillip's definitition is correct for western Melbourne in the 1950s, when sectarian stone fights were rife, but confined by honour to brinnies. Tykes from Doutta Galla State would be ambushed by louts from the local Catholic school, but never with yonnies. When made roads came to west Essendon small bits of bluestone were the preferred weapons.
Contributor's comments: Around Ballarat in the 70's and 80's, small stones were always "yonnies" - I've never even heard of a "brinnie" until I read it here!