Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any situation that meets a basic requirement of impartiality to all without fear of favour or prejudice.

1891		Brisbane Courier 25 Mar. 5/7: Inspector Ahern said, ‘You can hear them later,’ and the police seized the prisoners. Both appealed to Mr. Ranking, crying out, ‘Do you call this a fair go, Mr. Ranking?
1899		H. Garland Boy Life on the Prairie 176: It was a fair go, and you’re whipped.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 July 14/1: A little thing like that put a second storey on me sentence. [...] You’ll finish th’ call f’r another? Very well, Bluey, swing y’r pot to ’appy days ’n’ a fair go et th’ finish!
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 22: fair go (n.) — Equitable treatment; a fair field and no favour. [Ibid.] 36: open go — See fair go.
1929		J. Devanny Riven 185: She hated burdening herself with a child [...] but she was going to have a ‘fair go’.
1932		New Call (Perth, WA) 7 Apr. 3/5: In former times an ‘open go’ was afforded, and a winner simply had to take the risk, Sometimes he got through unscathed, more often he was ‘choked’ before he got fifty yards.
1933		(con. WWI) A.E. Strong in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: Joe. I always believe in giving a man a fair go.
1934		Frankston & Somerville Standard (Vic.) 7 Dec. 4/6: That’s enough, George. Give me a fair go; I have done no wrong.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 100: ‘Anyone who likes to come,’ Sam Little shouted back as he moved away. ‘It’s an open go.’ [Ibid.] 237: You ask a man not to work, and then one of your own mates goes out and gets a job scabbing. Call that a fair go?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 124: That bloody bunch of Orangemen wowsers we had in Parliament now were anti-booze, anti-betting, and anti-protectionist—anti anything that would give a bloke a fair go. [Ibid.] 292: I had given Nan an open go with any redecorating she wanted to do.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 218: I came in with you. I gave you a fair go.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 80: No matter who you are, the Australian will give you a fair go.
1977		in K. Gilbert Living Black 198: They got a fair go at nothing, eh?
1985		Tracks (Aus.) May 5: I happen to live in the Blue Mountains and I enjoy the travel and clean-air but I don’t enjoy such gems as Piss off westies, so how about a fair go? [Moore 1993].
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Bastards never give us a fair go.
2005		C. Hindrum in Tasmanian Times 4 Feb. 🌐 The Eureka Stockade was about nothing if it wasn’t about tryin’ to get a bloody fair go.

2. a fair fight.

1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Aug. 1/4: A number of flower girls were making things merry by what may be termed a ‘fair go.’ Two of the number had ‘some words’ over a ‘bloke‘ [etc].
1934		N. Lindsay Cautious Amorist 173: What the pair of you needs is a fair go face to face will ease your hearts an’ feelin’s.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 27: A fair go, a fight.
1961		F.J. Hardy Hard Way 106: ‘I’ll kill the commo bastard,’ one of Healy’s men shouted, shoving his way towards me. The young man gently lifted his girl’s hand from his arm, confronted the would-be basher and said: ‘Give him a fair go.’.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 74: The city has not taken away his belief in a fair go.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 88: I’ll give ’im a fair go too.