Old Dart

Possibly from the river Dart in Devonshire which enters the sea at Dartmouth, location of a Royal Navy College. Royal Navy officers who were returning to England at the end of a foreign tour of duty referred to going back to the "Old Dart" for further training.^[1]

Alternatively a variation of "old dirt" (compare old sod).

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Old Dart

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.

   Synonym: the old country

   • 1872, Pen-name Auld Lang Syne, Original Correspondence, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Victoria, 20 July 1872‎, page 2:

     J. A. W. has still, I am persuaded, any amount of friends in the Old Dart.

   • 1876, Magguffin, Random Notes, Oamaru Mail, 24 June 1876‎, page 2:

     You recollect that when I left the Colony to visit the old dart, besides the usual allowance granted...

   • 2003, John Williams, German Anzacs And The First World War‎, page 9:

     The ‘Old Dart’ mattered little to German Australians but the empire was another matter and Australia was their home.

   • 2003, Di Morrissey, Barra Creek, published 2010, page 432:

     ‘I have a whole range of new talents, Dad. I can muster a mob of cattle, break in a horse, speak pidgin, and at a pinch, stitch up someone′s head.’
     ‘Very useful in the Old Dart,’ he commented dryly and returned to his newspaper.

   • 2004, Mark Browning, Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket‎, page 55:

     Marsh′s experiences during his first days in the Old Dart were no different from most Australian cricketers′.

2. (colloquial, UK, naval) Dartmouth Royal Navy College.