I believe it's wale.........Ron
Maybe in Australia... but for the rest of us:
Idioms & Phrases
whale away
Attack physically or verbally, as in Our boys whaled away at the enemy , or The talk-show host whaled away at the hostile critics . The word whale here does not allude to the ocean mammal, but means "flog" or "thrash." [Mid-1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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There is some 'new and/or current' authority for the use of 'wale' (outside of Australia, of course) but the schools I went to, didn't enforce those rules. In fact, the building I went to public school in was built in 1880 and some of the teachers, born on, at, or before the turn of 'that' century. They had a marked appreciation for the advancements made in the educational processes, techniques and tools; most notably the 'pointer,' which had been truly 'weaponized,' by then. At least that's what we (the students- all 20 of us in 35 sq. mi.) thought and that's all that mattered, as I recall.
I'm not completely resistant to change, but the 'new and improved' crowd will have to do more (actual work) than to add (or remove, in the instant case) a single letter and then espouse it's new spelling form as definitively 'universal' and/or 'correct.'
I trust the above will be found sufficient for the purposes for which it was intended.