Crossword Genius

Brutes strike with violence in Australian uprising (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

animals

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'brutes' is the definition.
('animal' can be a synonym of 'brute')

'strike with violence in australian uprising' is the wordplay.
'strike with violence' becomes 'slam' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'australian' becomes 'A' (common abbreviation).
'uprising' is a reversal indicator.
'slam'+'in'+'a'='slamina'
'slamina' reversed gives 'ANIMALS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for animals that I've seen before include "Wild beasts" , "pets maybe" , "Fauna (as opposed to flora)" , "Beasts, creatures" , "Brutes" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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