Around 4 decades back, due to afforestation initiatives of the Government of India and the Supreme Court of India, the priority of sourcing timber for Indian consumption shifted from local to imports. And that is when Merbau from Indonesia and Kwila from Papua New Guinea(which are nothing but our “Honne”) started flowing in and replaced the local Honne in the market.
But, to distinguish between the Local Honne and the Imported Honne, there needed to be a proper adjective. Apt adjectives could have been “Indonesian” Honne and “Papua New Guinea” Honne. Understandably people found it very difficult to pronounce these words. So, a smart Timber trader instead named it as “Australian” Honne just to avoid a tongue twister. You may ask why Australia and why not any other country’s name. It is only because that smart trader was able to show Australia as a neighbor to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in the world map.😊
