stringybark, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stringybark adj.

[SE stringybark, one of many trees, typically the eucalyptus, that has a thick, rough and fibrous bark and is found in the bush of southeast Aus.]

(Aus.) unsophisticated, rural, remote.

1833		New South Wales Mag. Oct. I 173: I am but, to use a colonial expression, a stringy-bark carpenter [F&H].
1853		C. Rudston Read Aus. Gold Fields 53: After swimming a small river about 100 yards wide he’d arrive at old Geordy’s, a stringy-bark settler [F&H].
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 156: More particular over their rations than [...] any real stringy bark hand.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 249: They was all out of that and back at Bowning or some other stringy-bark hole as is fit for ’em.

stringybarker (n.) (also stringy-bark)

(Aus.) one who lives in the outback.

1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Dec. 2/6: Mr James French [...] declared that he saw Hussen chopping away like anything upon a stick, on the 15th instant, and while remonstrating with him, Hussen called him a stringy-barker.
1864		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 June 2/5: STUPIDUS is informed that the term ‘stringy-barker’ [...] does not refer to a certain lofty ecclesiastic in this city.
1879		Armidale Exp. (NSW) 7 Feb. 2/6: The old hero is a regular stringybarker, and, after he had done the last mile, he jumped into a caravan, kissed a buxom dame, and drove off as jauntily as if he had only just walked from the nearest public house.
1887		‘Aus. Colloquialisms’ in All Year Round 30 July 66/1: The ‘sundowner’ may be further described as a ‘dry hash,’ or a ‘stringybark,’ that is, a ne’er-do-weel, a fellow not good for much.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 30: He was a Larikin of the Larikins, this tiny Stringy Bark, who haunted my thoughts.
1895		Indianapolis Jrnl 30 June 14/4: A small farmer [in Australia] is a [...] ‘stringy-barker’.
1957		J. Greenway ‘Aus. Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 168: stringybarker, n. A resident of the outback.

stringybark cockatoo (n.) [cockatoo n.² (3)]

(Aus.) a small farmer, often a failed prospector forced to turn to farming in order to survive.

1905		‘The Stringybark Cockatoo’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 45: The old cocky, he grew jealous, and he thumped me black and blue, / And he drove me off without a rap – the stringy-bark cockatoo.
1958		R. Ward Aus. Legend 5: Dad and Dave were not pastoral workers, bushmen proper, but poor selectors, ‘stringybark cockatoos’, who were sneered at.
1976		B. Scott Complete Bk Aus. Folk Lore 19: These were the selectors, the stringybark cockatoos, the failed goldseekers turned settlers, battling it out on the thin edge of survival.