Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a short, squat beer bottle holding 375ml (13fl oz); occas. the beer itself; latterly used of cans (see cit. 1968).

1936		Gettysburg Times (PA) 21 May 8/2: [advert] Bru-Joy in Stubbie Bottles.
1943		Central N.J. Home News (New Brinswick, NJ) 10 June 22/6: [advert] Beer — No Deposit [...] — 12oz Stubbie Bottles.
1950		Encyc. Britannica IV 106/2: A variety of standardized forms and sizes of bottles are in use, including the so-called Stubby, Steinie, Packie, Export and Single Trip bottles.
1957		Encyc. Britannica IV 106/2: [as 1950] .
1968		J. O’Grady Gone Troppo (1969) 82: A bottle o’ stubby. That sure-as-god good strong ice-cold Aussie beer.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 163: Few visitors went anywhere without their ‘calling-card,’ usually consisting of one or more ‘Darwin Stubbies’.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 78: ’E smashed a stubby over ’is own ’ead and blood came out like water, true’s God.
1984		S. Thorne Battler 59: ‘You’re a bloody dag O’Brien, no doubt about it. Slow on the shout too - crack another stub, that first one hasn’t even hit the bottom’.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 107: [...] pulling the ring pull off another stubbie.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] They stayed long enough to down a stubbie each.
1998		Bug (Aus.) 16 Aug. 🌐 Roberta, who is only five, can open a twist top stubby like she was born to it.
2000		Indep. Rev. 14 Sept. 5: One is the hearty, red-necked Crocodile Dundee, downing a ‘stubbie’ bottle of Castlemaine XXXX.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2005		Google Groups: aus.sport.rugby-league 10 Jan. 🌐 I’ve drank it over there, draught and bottled, and even had a stub here a few months back.
2012		L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] She was holding two stubbies of Coopers Red.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Schooner of light beer, thanks.’ ‘Stubby okay?’.

2. usu. in pl., shorts [underpinned by brandname Stubbies].

1977		Australian 7 Apr. 3: Stubbies – the football shorts with pockets – have become an international fashion [...] Although the Stubby is a very Australian name – thought of in the context of short shorts to go with short bottles of beer – Mr Phillips is confident they will become as American as apple pie .
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 51: Mr Foster puts on his stubbies and heads off to the SCG for the cricket.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 34: Wearing the standard uniform of the Outback male: [...] ‘stubbies’, which are green, tight-fitting, zipless shorts.
1993		T. Winton Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 105: A pair of black Stubbies, a Bonds T-shirt.
2003		Bug (Aus.) May 🌐 Guts Ghoul [...] reckoned some Nudes Unlimited journos had been pissing into his stubbies. If that meant his shorts he wouldn’t have minded, but he was talking about his beer.
2012		L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Peter was dressed in stubbies and a VB singlet.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] Davie [...] looked up to see a man in Stubbies and a PPC work shirt.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 200: Wearing tight stubbies and thongs.