Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(mainly Aus.) afternoon; also attrib.

1920		Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 5 June 7/2: See the mill yesterday arfo’ Steve?
1933		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Dec. 42/1: Alone on the bench this Sunday arvo.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 197: Like that tart I saw down town last Saturday arvo.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 36: What about the range this arvo?
1966		G. Barry Bed and Bored 164: We was at the Club, and I’d been playing the machines all arvo.
1979		Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 48: Bruce wants me to meet him down the creek this arvo.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 14: Any time of year after three-thirty in the arvo.
1995		M. Simpson ‘Prufrock Scoused‘ Catching Up with Hist. 23: The avvo, the evenin avin a birrova kip.
1997		T. Winton Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 148: We’ll be home this arvo.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 81: An en, iss arvo, a saw it in-a Cambrian News, agen: Fat Charlie’s dead.
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 1: He wished he was able to be drunk at three in the arvo.
2010		R. Easton Naked in Eden 55: A couple of freaks went through yesterday arvo. Bloody drongos ponged so bad I stayed upwind of ’em.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [F]anning herself with the arvo Telegraph.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] Later that arvo [...] the old man grabbed a six-pack of Crownies.
2022		in D. Andrew Aussie Sl.