Green’s Dictionary of Slang

widgie n.

[post-1960s use historical only; ? ridgie-didgie adj.]

1. (Aus.) the female counterpart of a bodgie n. (3)

[Aus]Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 2 Mar. 5/4: The male is the ‘bodgie’ and the female is the ‘weegie’ [...] their exercise is jitterbugging.
Sun. Chronicle (NZ) 6 Jan. n.p.: Widgie [...] [A] girl with horse-tail hair-do and bobby socks, also playing juke-box in milk-bar.
[Aus]Mirror (Perth) 14 Jan. 3/1: A 15-year-old girl who said she was a widgie [...] spent the night with bodgies in King’s Park.
[Aus]W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 185: I was able to attract good-looking girls. Also, I was considered not too bad a looker by our widgies.
[Aus] ‘The Road to Gundagai’ at warrenfahey.com 🎵 There’s a widgie on her back, and she’s lying on the track.
[Aus]J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 65: The Dirty Half Mile [...] where the bodgies and widgies and pimps and other members of the Cross younger set preferred to mingle .
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 123/2: widgie female bodgie.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Davo’s Little Something 18: Dad was a bodgie and the old girl was a widgie.
[Aus]G. Seal Lingo 109: The bodgies’ girlfriends were known as widgies, a term whose origin is unclear, but which has been variously explained as related to ridgy-didge, wigeon, a young girl and a journalistic corruption of weakie (that is, a poseur) [...] The widgies’ dress varied according to place and time, but pegged gabardine skirts, often with a wide leather belt, jeans, flat-heeled shoes for dancing and short hair and, sometimes in the earlier days, bobbysocks were all possible elements of the wardrobe. Later the flared skirt, tight sweater and thrust bra became recognised as the standard widgie costume.
[Aus]P. Carey Theft 20: Even the bodgies and widgies would throw eggs at the barber’s windows.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

[Aus]Mail (Adelaide) 15 Dec. 7/2: The alarming picture of the bodgie-widgie cult has worsened [...] sex and marihuana parties, drug addiction, and crime were due directly to bodgie-widgie influence.