Australia’s own local dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, is looking for help.
Like all dictionary publishers, the Macquarie Dictionary keeps pace with words and their definitions by drawing on the widest possible range of sources. 
That includes all of us.
They want to create a picture of Australia – literally in pictures – to help illustrate words related to our Australian environment in the online version of the dictionary.
Whether you’re a bushwalker or you prefer a stroll by the lake, along a beach or even just in the local park, you can help by uploading a photo that depicts an aspect of the environment around you, accompanied by a short description of the 
subject of the photo and where it was taken.
Each week, The Macquarie Dictionary will pick their favourite #ozpic photo submissions to share on Instagram and Facebook. And at the end of the project, the editor will make a final selection of photos to be included in the online reference.
New environment words
The Macquarie Dictionary has many words that relate to the physical features of the Australian landscape – creek, gully, lagoon, billabong, etc. But they strongly suspect that there are more words for the environment that they are yet to discover.
So they are also looking for any new words or meanings relating to the Australian environment that you know are used in your locality but are not yet in the Macquarie Dictionary.
Or perhaps the word is in the dictionary, but it’s used differently in your neck of the woods. You can send them any new words or meanings via the Add a word page.
Words and pictures
This joint project between ABC Local Radio and Macquarie Dictionary aims to uncover some of those words and to supplement the definition given in the dictionary with a photograph.
They don’t want just one picture but one from each region of Australia.
“…so that we can see how billabongs vary across the country, how the sandstone cliffs of the Blue Mountains differ from the granite rocks of the Tasmanian Tiers, and uncover other hidden gems along the way,” they say.
Tune in to your local ABC radio station or listen to the latest episodes on The Macquarie Dictionary website.
