Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) a receptacle used for vomit on ships and aeroplanes.

1936		R. Hyde Passport to Hell 93: Not far out of New Zealand waters the ship struck heavy weather... life just one strawberry-box after another [DNZE].
1943		NZEF Times 20 Dec. 7: Can you envisage anything more pathetic than a surreptitious ‘strawberry box’ in the unsteady hands of a pale-green voyager? [DNZE].
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 16: It is a small cabin with compact fittings, [...] the old strawberry box of ferry legend – a wash basin cornering the cabin, with two glasses and the mirror.
1965		G. McInnes Road to Gundagai 35: All about us they [i.e. passengers] were vomiting into ‘strawberry boxes’ [OED].
1978		(ref. to 1930s) G. Tucker Thoroughbreds Are My Life 8: If you can capture a mental picture of 22 cricketers making regular use of ‘strawberry boxes’ [on the Lyttelton ferry Rangatira, c1930s] [...] you will have some idea of the trauma which existed [DNZE].
1982		(ref. to c.1941) B. Mackenzie WAAF Book 30: The boat [Tamahine c 1941] always seemed to head for that notorious stretch of water known as ‘the rip’... A nurse in white would move about among the green passengers with much-needed strawberry boxes [DNZE].
1992		B. Anderson Portrait Artist’s Wife 69: The journey involved [...] a night on the inter-island ferry coping with Sybil’s seasickness which startled even the stewardesses. ‘Poor little sparrow,’ they said, dumping yet another strawberry box.