Green’s Dictionary of Slang

goanna n.1

also gohanna
[fig. uses of SAusE goanna, a variety of lizard (ult. SE iguana)]

1. (Aus.) a virile man.

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[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 7/1: That’s all very well, and it’s easy saying ‘get married,’ but who in thunder has a chance alongside an ancient ‘gohanna’ like this, who is so reproductive that he turns out, apparently with ease and efficiency, fifteen young Renalls to his wife’s fourteen.

2. (Aus.) any old person.

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[Aus]J. Hibberd Dimboola (2000) 76: Drop dead, you old goanna.

In compounds

goanna oil (n.)

(Aus.) any supposedly remarkable medicinal cure.

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[Aus](con. mid-19C) Brisbane Courier 1 Jan. 15.1: The innkeeper's wife recommended ‘goanna oil,’ and nursed the spent strength of her guests upon bacon and eggs, served three times a day.
[Aus]Argus (Melbourne) 10 May 9/2: An old bushman who has great faith in the efficacy of goanna oil.
[Aus]Australasian (Melbourne) 16 Jan. 41/5: ‘Well, I’ve nothing of that kind,’ [i.e. motor oil] explained the bushman, ‘but a stock of goanna oil that I keep for rheumatism’.
[Aus]Horsham Times (Vic.) 13 Nov. 5/3: I am a great believer in goanna oil.
Neapean Times (Penrith, NSW) 1 Aug. 7/4: Jack Hamilton is training on snake juice and goanna oil.
[Aus]Townsville Dly Bulletin (Qld) 21 Dec. 7/4: Some one suggested rubbing our joints with goanna oil. Jacky the abo didn't believe there was a factory to make goanna oil and salve.
[US]J. Greenway ‘Australian Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 166: goanna oil, n. Any miraculous medication or panacea; the equivalent of American snake oil.
Neapean Times (Penrith, NSW) 5 Oct. 6/5: The only report we can get is that ‘The Goanna Oil is for keeping them on the go; the Kangaroo Oil is for keeping them on the hop’.
[Aus]Canberra Times ACT) 3 Aug. 23/4: The organ’s warm, ancient, coos and hoots and honks relaxed me as though I was being massaged with goanna oil by a towering (but gentle) negress.
[Aus]R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 27: Goanna oil: A mythical oil made from the flesh of boiled down lizards who were doing no one any harm until the arrival of Europeans in the continent. It has the reputation of being able to eat its way through glass containers as well as being able to cure cancer.
[Aus]Canberra Times (ACT) 12 Nov. 16/1: Signs for [...] Kiwi shoe polish, and Akubra hats decorate the windows which hold a display of nostalgic items such as Goanna Oil, Digger Jams and the Sydney Mail newspaper.