Ranger Jack – Jack from the Mother Goose nursery rhyme and Australian slang for a Parks Victoria police officer
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Ranger_Jack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill
https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/get-into-nature/meet-our-rangers
Ranger Jack works with Morp to defend the Great Barrier from Drop Bears and the Night Riders. He’s sent his fellow rangers in to deal with the threat but they’re not the same when they return. The rangers whimper and rave about the deep red lights… and the swoosh. Ranger Jack will let your Wizard deal with the problem, but know this, he wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy Jill. He hates Jill more than anything.
Ranger Jack was there when the Emu Riders emerged from the Pink Lake. He was fetching a pail of Dream Water when the young larrikans tames the emus and rode them to kick the Great Barrier. In the confusion, he was pushed by Jill. He fell down… but that’s a personal matter. He’s still on patrol… seething.
According to Google AI, Parks Victoria, a government agency in Victoria, Australia, employs rangers who manage parks, forests, and conservation areas. “Jacks” is Australian slang for police officers. Ranger Jack is Australian slang for a Parks Victoria Ranger with law enforcement capabilities.
He looks after Yarra Bend Park, Westerfolds Park, and Banksia Park
“Jack and Jill” (sometimes “Jack and Gill”, particularly in earlier versions) is a traditional English nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the commonest tune and its variations as number 10266, although it has been set to several others. The original rhyme dates back to the 18th century and different numbers of verses were later added, each with variations in the wording. Throughout the 19th century new versions of the story were written featuring different incidents. A number of theories continue to be advanced to explain the rhyme’s historical origin.
The earliest version of the rhyme was in a reprint of John Newbery’s Mother Goose’s Melody, thought to have been first published in London around 1765. The rhyming of “water” with “after” was taken by Iona and Peter Opie to suggest that the first verse might date from the 17th century. Jill was originally spelled Gill in the earliest version of the rhyme and the accompanying woodcut showed two boys at the foot of the hill.
Jack and Gill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Gill came tumbling after.
Later the spelling was changed to Jill and more verses were added to carry the story further, of which the commonest are:
Up Jack got and home did trot,
As fast as he could caper;
Went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.
Jill came in and she did grin
To see his paper plaster;
Mother, vex’d, did whip her next
For causing Jack’s disaster.
As presented over the following century, the rhyming scheme of the six-line stanzas is AABCCB and they are trochaic in rhythm. Alternatively, when given the form of internally rhymed quatrains, this would be an example of the ballad form commonly used for nursery rhymes.
The phrase “Jack and Jill” existed earlier in England to indicate a boy and girl as a generic pair. It is so used, for example, in the proverb “Every Jack (shall/must) have his Jill”, to which there are references in two plays by William Shakespeare dating from the 1590s. The compress of vinegar and brown paper to which Jack resorted after his fall was a common home cure used to heal bruises.
The current list of all the (known) Wallaru references are located here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Ranger Jack image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Ranger Tim image is borrowed from the Parks Victoria website and is copyright Parks Victoria
Jack and Jill postcard is borrowed from Wikipedia and is in the Public Domain.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 