Also quandang, -dung, quon(g)dong, quantong. [Aboriginal Australian.] a. An Australian tree of the sandal-wood order (Fusanus acuminatus or Santalum acuminatum), or its edible drupaceous fruit, which is of a blue color and about the size of a cherry; also called native peach(-tree). b. A large Australian scrub-tree (Eleocarpus grandis), or its fruit. Also attrib., as quandong-nut, -tree.
1839. T. L. Mitchell, 3 Exped., 135 (Morris). In all these scrubs on the Murray the Fusanus acuminatus is common, and produces the quandang nut.
1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, Port Phillip, II. 30. The indigenous Quandang … is the only really palatable fruit that grows in the wilds of Port Phillip.
1857. W. Howitt, Tallangetta, I. 41 (Morris). Abundance of fig … trees, cherries, loquots, quondongs.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxx. (1894), 279. Such quantongs, such raspberries, surpassing imagination.
1887. J. Farrell, How He Died, 20. Where barren fig-tree and … quandong Bloom on lone roads.
