The Speewah is synonymous with hyperbole as many of the tales about the place are used to enhance the storytellers' masculinity by relating events of extreme hardship and overcoming the dangers of the Australian wilderness.
Typically men talk of the Speewah when they are faced with hard labour as a means of making their jobs mentally easier, though it can also be seen as a way of legitimising their bragging.
Speech of this sort is used to make light of the situation or to re-affirm the speakers' masculinity or bush skills to the detriment of others.
Crooked Mick is a larger-than-life character from Australian Oral Tradition, emerging during the era of the swagmen, and sheep shearing.
Nothing was beyond him; he was said to have been capable of a number of impossible or difficult feats (for example, lifting huge weights, shearing a large number of sheep in a short period of time, baking pies so light that a gust of wind would carry them, kicking crocodiles up to the moon, and moving mountains) [citation needed].
Most commonly, however, it was due to possessing a "crooked" walk: a limp from being ringbarked when he was a teenager or a bent leg from an incident with a water trough [citation needed].