bunyip aristocracy

Etymology
From +. Coined in 1853 by Australian journalist and politician Daniel Deniehy (1828-1865) satirising a proposal of William Wentworth for a hereditary peerage in the then colony of New South Wales. At the time, bunyip was Sydney underworld slang for an impostor or con-man, a sense Deniehy may have been aware of, but which was “obviously” unknown to Wentworth.

Noun

 * 1)  A peerage (hypothetical or proposed) in Australia; the new (in the colonial era) landed rich aspiring to aristocracy; snobbish Australian conservatives.
 * 2) * 1853, Daniel Deniehy, A heritage befitting the dignity of free men, speech at the Victoria Theatre in Pitt St, Sydney, 15 August 1853, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald the following day, reprinted 2009, Pamela Robson, Great Australian Speeches, unnumbered page,
 * Here we all know the common water mole was transferred into the duck-billed platypus, and in some distant emulation of this degeneration, I suppose we are to be favoured with a bunyip aristocracy.

Usage notes
Mainly used in the context of Wentworth's proposal and Deniehy's speech. Occasionally used in New South Wales politics by Labor MPs referring to their Liberal Party opponents.