The Australian expression 'black stump' is the name for an imaginary point beyond which the country is considered remote or uncivilised, an abstract marker of the limits of established settlement. The origin of the expression, especially in its evolved use as an imaginary marker in the landscape, is contested. The various claims are discussed below. The term "Black stump" was used as land markers on a surveyors plan and was first referred to as a boundary marker in a New South Wales court case involving a land law dispute. See R v West [1831] NSWSupC 66 (12 October 1831). The case refers to vacant land at Woolloomooloo where a surveyor had difficulty in ascertaining the boundaries as he could not find a plan from the days of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. In the case it stated, "...and he pointed to some old stumps, which he said had been marked...defendant would not admit that the cross line marked by me on the plan was not part of his boundary...he said it ran to a black stump beyond the line, which he said had been marked...; he said the line was to run somewhere thereabouts; utmost extent claimed by defendant was the black stump of which I have spoken...made no claims beyond South Head road..." One theory states that the expression derives from the use of black stumps in the landscape as markers when directing travellers. Other explanations relate to historical events associated with places or geographical features with names incorporating the phrase "black stump". At least three regional Australian towns claim the expression originated in their general vicinity. Vernacular formulations The term 'black stump' is used in various formulations. The most common are: ‘beyond the black stump’ or ‘back of the black stump’ in the outback; remote from civilisation. The following quote from John Wynnum’s I’m a Jack, all Right (1967; p. 18) conveys this meaning: “It’s way back o’ Bourke. Beyond the Black Stump. Not shown on the petrol station maps, even.” In 1956 British novelist Neville Shute published Beyond the Black Stump, a novel set in the 1940/50s, contrasting the social mores of a still remote Western Australian sheep station and a small town in Oregon, USA, which still thought of itself as a frontier town despite the Cadillac dealership and the fast food joint ‘this side of the black stump’ in the world known to the speaker; anywhere in