Donga

Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga.

There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.

Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.

Count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head.

Menzies Hotel ([Ph] 9024 2043; 22 Shenton St; s/d $48/65, donga $75) has old-style hotel rooms as well as - for that real goldfields experience - dongas (temporary miner′s abode, usually made from corrugated iron), and also serves all meals.

He not only expects his fence to be perfect, he also expects his dongas to be the best workman′s huts in Australia, and that is what they are.

2009, David Marr, The Ibdian Ocean Solution, Robyn Davidson (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2009, page 118, Workers building roads in the bush sleep in dongas like these and are well paid for their discomfort.