Aussie Slang

Queues

They had a stroll down the red-dust road, Ted and Colten looking rather serious as if what they were talking about was a very adult matter, which was silly, thought Jacko, because they weren't even adults yet.
Every step seemed to loosen the knot of Jacko's laces, until finally it came undone and looked rather untidy, trailing along behind his brown, leather shoe. Though it didn't seem to bother mother that he may trip over and hurt himself this time, so he left it untampered with, as if he hadn't a clue.
Finally, they reached town. of which seemed overly busy than normal, and made Jacko think that this registration thingy was terribly, terribly important. He caught sight of two long queues, and let his eyes wonder down them. There were two large signs (one for each queue). One read "16 years to 18" and the other "18 years and above".
Jacko estimated which line of people his brothers would go into, and his calculations were correct, even though it was a rather easy and didn't take long for either Ted, nor Colt to figure for themselves.
He watched as Ted patted down Colten's freshly ironed shirt, and slipped his hand behind his head with a firm grip. "It doesn't matter if they let you go or not, because in a few months, they'll be asking for more young soldiers to join, and by then your arm would've cleared up and you would've put on a bit of meat, just don't get too downed, mate."
Those reassuring words seemed to go straight to Colten's head, as he felt a lot stronger already, and he replied with a sarcastic "good luck to you too", and a hard slap on the shoulder blade, which made Ted flinch and close his eyes, his mouth turned to a regretful smile and off they went, into the queues.
Both Jacko and Kassie knew the waiting would be long, so they went to the nearest bench to rest, leaving mother, in the middle of the grounds of town, watching her eldest boys with loving eyes, wondering where the time went.