Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./N.Z.) a vagrant, a tramp.

1875		Portland Guardian (Vic.) 5 Oct. 5/5: One of your correspondents in criticising the absurdity and evil of Immigration, declared that ‘forty swaggies had crossed Hotspur Bridge in one month’.
1878		Sth Bourke & Mornington Jrnl 5 June 3/4: ‘Swaggie’ grumbled at the high price charged for what he called ‘some thrash’.
1884		Kerang Times & Swan Hill Gaz. (Vic.) 3 June 4/1: Here I am, a lively swaggy, travelling round to earn my grub.
1890		Ashburton Guardian (NZ) 6 May 2/7: The S.M. [i.e. station master] bustled out [...] and challenged the ‘swaggie’s’ right to the dog.
1892		E.W. Hornung Under Two Skies 109: Here’s a swaggie stopped to camp, with flour for a damper, and a handful of tea for the quart-pot, as safe as the bank.
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 266: What boozers these swaggeys is.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 May 12/3: [H]e presented himself again as a swarthy, swearful swaggie. This time he not only passed flying, but heard himself chuckled over by the experts as ‘a tough case, good for wear,’ ‘a rough diamond,’ and ‘a real old fighting kangaroo.’.
1902		Ohinemurri Gaz. (NZ) 21 May 3/3: Re swaggies as pedlars. Met a man selling cheap sheet-music the other day.
1911		L. Esson Dead Timber in Three Short Plays 26: Yer’ll end yer days humpin’ bluey, like an old swaggie.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 249: ‘But a swaggy is a tramp?’ ‘It is. It is one who humps it.’.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 157: He would be easy-going and genial, fraternize with every one he met [...] pick up any old swaggie and take him home to dinner.
1938		F. Blakeley Hard Liberty 19: That was how the district got its biggest funeral and the swaggies lost their best friend.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 88: The same method of word formation gives [...] swaggy (also swagger, a tramp carrying a swag).
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 158: I’m like the old swaggie; no man’s master and no man’s slave.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 75: Of course it could have been a swaggie—some sundowner or bagman.
1977		(con. 1944) A. Campbell Island To Island (1984) 99: A swaggie had a regular beat [...] and was a familiar sight, with his torn felt hat, tattered overcoat and his sack over his shoulder.
1981		J. Charles Black Billy Tea 37: The farmers encouraged the swaggies to move freely up and down the country following the seasonal work.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 271: Two swaggies called in at the presbytery in a country town hoping for a handout.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 204: swag Backpack of the tramp, who is known as a swagger/swaggie/swagman.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] ‘No drama?’ said Kendall Rogers. ‘Just a swaggie,’ said Cashin.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 52: ‘[S]waggies, travelling by foot from farm to farm, town to town’.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1925

Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 12 Dec. 6s/4: One of you swaggie blokes came here looking for work.

3. (Aus.) in pl., pork and veal sausages stuffed with cheese and bacon cooked in a barecue sauce.

1988

L.A. Times VII 14 Feb. 12/2: Dining in Brisbane [...] ‘Swaggies’, pork and veal sausages stuffed with cheese and bacon cooked in a barecue sauce.