The Last Continent

88

The natural assumption that BU stands for “Bugarup University” is entirely logical, but the fact that it’s not spelt out gives us license to speculate wildly about many alternative resonances…

First, it’s worth noting that there really is a BU in Australia: Bond University, in the Gold Coast, was financed and named after Alan Bond, the well-known Americas Cup winner, colourful businessman and ex-gaolbird. His principal business interest was in brewing: he owned the Castlemaine Tooheys brand, before running into trouble in the late 80s. (see also the annotation {79}).

Adding a second dimension to the name, one could note that “bû” is the past participle of the French “boire”, to drink. Third, there’s the well-known drinking expression “bottoms up!” — an exhortation to fellow drinkers to quaff harder. Even more improbably, there’s the notion that never fails to raise a laugh in primary schools in the UK that Australians, being upside-down, all walk on their heads, i.e. with their bums uppermost. Of course, most likely BU does stand for Bugarup University. But all that was worth thinking about, wasn’t it?