There are 1 results of your search for emu patrol.
emu patrol
the picking up of litter from an area, usually by an organised group of people, often as a school punishment. Compare emu bob, emu parade, emu stalk, emu walk.
Contributor's comments: [Tolga, Qld, informant] When I was a kid the teachers got us to clean up the litter on the playground by mounting an emu patrol. To do this all the kids would line up side by side and move across the playground picking up any litter directly in front of them.
Contributor's comments: In the 60's emu patrol was a common punishment for minor rule breaking at school in Wagga Wagga [NSW].
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: 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: The term 'Emu Patrol or stalk 'was used in the eastern goldfields of WA where I was raised.
Contributor's comments: Pick up rubbish from a sports ground/camp ground/school yard. Used extensively in South Australia in the 70's: "C'mon guys, let's have an emu patrol before we go."
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!