Weekend Australian, Sunday Times 620

Couple of Kiwi-isms in here. But I guess old Dot just thinks it's part of Australia anyway. Maybe we should save up and invite her over for a culture lesson? A few unfair things marked below. But, I have to say, I really liked 14 down for its sheer surface fun. Have a nice (what's left of the) weekend.

Across
4. GARGOYLE. Anag of O ("old") and "grey-lag". A carved figure projecting from a building, usually (but not always) for keeping gutter water clear of the walls. They have them at U of Q, depicting various characters associated with the University. Anyone know of others in Australia?
8. PROTEA. "Seed" (PEA) with "internal decay" (ROT). Can the word be plural? If you have several protea, I guess you have several varieties of them. Otherwise (and perhaps as well) it's "proteas".
9. LAWCOURT. Anag of "crawl out".
10. SASHCORD. Anag of "As chords". The def here is "opening string arrangement": an arrangement of strings for opening a (sash) window; or an arrangement of strings for an opening (i.e., a [sash] window). Chambers, inter alia, has this as two words.
11. IDEALS. A kind of [sawn?] wood (DEAL) with IS around it. Does "is impounded" achieve this?
12. SHAGROON. The "matted hair" is SHAG + ROO + N ("new"). This is a settler in the Land of the Wrong White Crowd, other than the British. Possibly from the Irish seachran -- wandering.
13. OPERATIC. The "wink" is a TIC. It's next to ("by") an OPERA (Carmen) and the whole is "Exaggerated".
16. REABSORB. Anag of "Bears" with ORB ("the eye"). The def/lit is "will take it in again"; which is OK if we ignore the "will".
19. SPROUTED. ROUT ("drive off") with SPED ("raced") written around it.
21. TICKET. Attempted cryptic def. We(?) say "Just the ticket"; and a traveller (sometimes) has one.
23. IMPUDENT. "I[']m put" around "room" (DEN). Looks like MAD (missing apostrophe disease) has spread from the Oz version of the Times.
24. BEEFWOOD. A type of casuarina. Put F ("Initially feller") and WOOD (sounds like "would") after BEE ("fly"?).
25. TIT-IAN. Is "chases" supposed to mean "comes after"?
26. ATTACKER. No need for the "some say". Ramson has "tacker" as a "small child". First recorded 1942, last 1980.

Down
1. CREAGHE. Emily Caroline (née Robinson, aka Barnett, her name by her second marriage), 1860-1944. Anag. of "reach" and "e.g.". She doesn't make it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_explorers. Wonder why? But you will find her here: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130143b.htm.
2. ITCHY GRUB. Anag of "cry" + "hit bug". Any caterpillar causing skin irritation; esp. the processional caterpillar, according to Ramson. First recorded 1940, last 1973. Dot loves this source, even if no-one uses many of these words now. Since it's published by Oxford, maybe it should be the prize?
3. PALOLO. Nastly little bugger your Palola viridis. Several ways of parsing this. I suspect you bring "Buddy" (PAL) around "[to] see" (LO) and make up the final O. Or else Dot was thinking "Palola" -- which makes more sense but doesn't fit the crossing O. Another way is to go with PAL + LO and take "brought round" as supplying the first O. Just shabby, I guess. And, as far as I know, "Palolo" doesn't exist on its own; it only ever qualifies "worm".
4. GOLDEN ORB SPIDER. Anag of "older bed-spring" + O ("ring").
5. REWRITES. No need for the question-mark here. Straight charade: RE ("about") W ("western") RITES ("ceremonies").
6. OZONE. Again, gratuitous question-mark. OZ + ONE. My own question-mark has to do with "with a" as a means of pointing to the def.
7. LORELEI. Crap cryptic def. My fave version of the story is here: http://nano.free.fr/lor-appolinaire.htm
14. ABSURDITY. Easy anag; but this is a really good clue. Or maybe I just like this idea of a duty free bar and a drink on the rocks after a visit to Lorelei's place!
15. BOATHOOK. OATH ("Swear") inside BOOK ("reserve"). The first of these is dodgy. No std. ref. I have gives "oath" as a verb or "swear" as a noun. The hackles go up here, as when I hear "to goal" in football or "to par" in pebble-stick. So it's a WPOS; as is the def: "[something] for sailors to deploy".
17. EVIDENT. Turn up "I've" and add an impression, DENT. It's obvious.
18. BEANBAG. Double def or cryptic def? When did anybody last throw a beanbag around? I sat in one in the 1970s -- but throwing? [[EDIT: several bits of correspondence on this one. They were little cloth bags full of actual (as opposed to polystyrene) beans the kids used to chuck about in kindy and primary school. Now I think back, I can remember them. Just.]]
20. REP-UTE. Love the way non-Australians use "ute" in clues. Reminds me of when the wonderful and lovely Ute Lemper sang at the Perth Concert Hall. (It was me and 700 lesbians in the stalls that night.) She talked about arriving at Perth airport and found 12 magazines dedicated to her alone!
22. KAFKA. Bit obscure. You have to stick F (the head-letter of "fore") into "Kaka", a not-very-green NZ parrot (Nestor meridionalis). "Bitten by" tells you to do the sticking-into.