Many of the words used to describe cooks refer to the poor quality of the cooking. Baitlayer and poisoner are both pretty explicit in suggesting something about the quality of food served.

Baitlayer is first recorded in Australian English in 1910 and poisoner in 1897. While much of the first evidence for baitlayer comes from slang dictionaries, poisoner is well attested in Australian English, originally used in the context of shearing.

Some of the words reflect more on the abilities of the cook than the quality of the food per se. This includes water-scorcher (first recorded in 1916) and water burner (1958). A more explicit variation on this theme is tucker f**ker (1983).

Rhyming slang, a feature of Australian English, has also contributed to creating a set of words for cooks. Babbling brook ‘cook’ is first recorded in 1904, as is its abbreviated form babbler. Another abbreviated form, bab, was first recorded in 1918.

While originating with station life, babbling brook and its various shortened forms are well attested as being in use within the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. Another less well-attested rhyming slang term, recorded by Patsy Adam-Smith in her 1982 book The Shearers, is silly look.

A few other words relating to cooks can be traced in Australian English. One of these is doughbanger, first recorded in 1891, which is a more neutral term than some of the others, and presumably alludes to the bread and/or damper that station cooks often made as a staple item.

An interesting term for a cook’s assistant in Australian English is slushy, which is first recorded in 1880, but is a transferred use of a naval term referring to a cook, which dates back to the early nineteenth century.