Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a lock-up, a prison; usu. in phr. in the logs.

1857		Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.) : Then he’d go and send a summons, / And by Mac, that rum old file. / In the logs with lots of rum ’uns, / You’d be put iu durance vile.
1861		Mt. Alexander Mail (Vic.) 24 Apr. 2/6: Some few weeks ago, the police made a raid on the prostitutes of tliis town; several of the girls were taken up, and consequently had a month in the logs.
1877		Alexandra & Yea Standard (Vic.) 29 Sept. 2/7: The bench fined defendant £5, in default a month’s imprisonment. Stevenson decided on going to gaol, but after having been in the ‘logs’ a few hours, he thought it more advisable to pay the fine.
1888		Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic.) 1 Sept. 2/4: A farmer named Wm. Collier, who was found drunk by Constable Warren, was discharged, he having done some 20 hours in the logs.
1888		(con. 1852-3) ‘Bendigo since ’51’ in Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.) 13 Oct. 3/2: 1852-3.—The Commissioners’ Camp—An Old Picture—In the Logs—Bribing the Door-keeper—The Arch Villainy of the Police [...] . A rustic, looking building made of logs of trees proved to be the lockup, and near it was a wooden house or office for the police magistrate.
1894		Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld) 27 Feb. 4/1: The Army Captain and Lieutenant got a week each in ‘the logs’.
1900		Molong Argus (NSW) 5 Jan. 7/3: Of one [sic] Priest's assailants was ordered to pay about £7 to save himself having to undergo 4 months in the logs.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 2: Another had been nabbed in a man-hunt and clapped into the ‘logs’.
1928		(con. 1854) N. Spielvogel Affair at Eureka 15: Remember your thirty-five friends lying in the ‘logs’ tonight [AND].