What it means
Means hard work, a proper slog, usually the kind that leaves you dusty, knackered, and questioning your life choices. You’ll most often hear it as hard yakka, but yakka on its own still gets a run. The word’s commonly traced back to a Yagara term for work, which is a neat bit of Aussie linguistic mash-up.
Usage examples
"Been on hard yakka all week on the site, up at sparrow’s, home wrecked. Saturday arvo I’m doing sweet bugger all and grabbing a cold one."
"We did proper hard yakka on the back fence all weekend, by Sunday arvo the postholes were done and we were running on snags and cold tinnies in the shade."
"She had been on yakka for fourteen days straight at the mine, came home with red dust in her boots and immediately fell asleep in the kitchen chair."
Where it comes from
Comes directly from Yagara, the Aboriginal language of the Brisbane area, where yaga meant work. White settlers borrowed the word in the nineteenth century, and the spelling settled into yakka. The phrase hard yakka has stayed in Aussie slang ever since, from cattle stations to building sites.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
Your vote counts
Is this real street talk or have we lost the plot? Cast your vote.