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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

poddy dodger n.

[SAusE poddy, an unbranded calf + dodge, to steal (cattle)]

(Aus.) one who steals unbranded cattle, a cattle rustler; thus poddy-dodge v.

1919		Smith’s Weekly (Sydney) 26 Apr. 19/4: The luck of the poddy-dodgers in these parts is right out just now. They expend time and cunning in mustering clean-skins, and [...] a station manager or policeman comes nosing around [AND].
1923		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Oct. 22/2: I would like the cattle duffers and poddy dodgers of the Council to give their views on the merits of twisted and plaited green-hide ropes.
1930		Central Qld Herald (Rockhampton, Qld) 6 Feb. 55/1: Yet just as there are grades in the city amongst its denizens of the underworld, and where the Sykes’ variety of brainy burglars would look with contempt on the paltry sneak-thief, so does the real cattle rustler look on the poddy dodger.
1939		J.G. Pattison ‘Battler’s’ Tales Early Rockhampton 113: Some of the Queensland poddy dodgers [...] were not satisfied with pinching a man’s cattle, but they would pinch his gins as well [AND].
1949		I.L. Idriess One Wet Season 13: Bunch ’em up, you loafing sons of poddy-dodgers!
1951		E. Hill Territory 307: The poddy-dodgers were hard-living, hard-riding lads.
1956		T. Ronan Moleskin Midas 149: For every poddy that’s up in the Coronet breakaways there’s a dozen blokes tying to dodge it off.
1965		J. O’Grady Aussie Eng. (1966) 34: In the bush, a ‘poddy-dodger’ is a calf-thief.
1967		F.J. Hardy in Great Aus. Lover Stories 120: He bought a few cattle and poddy-dodged a few more.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 69: Banjo Paterson once wrote a pungent verse imploring the Almighty to ‘keep the cockies off the Ord’ and the poddy dodgers and duffers out of the Kimberleys.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 41: Poddy-dodger: A cattle stealer who specialises in calves.

In derivatives

poddy-dodging (n.)

cattle-rustling.

1919		Inverell Times (NSW) 15 July 3/4: PROFESSIONAL PODDY DODGING [...] Cattle stealing is rife here. [...] The professional poddy dodger will wait on you and take your order like a traveller; so many, such and such a price, according to age.
1923		Northern Standard (Darwin) 19 June 2/5: PODDY DODGING IN THE TERRITORY It is surmised that the poddy dodgers came over with the view of getting a mob of clean skins together.
1933		Eve. News (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 Dec. 13/5: Graziers suffered tremendous losses from ‘poddydodging,’ or the stealing of unbranded calves; and many grown beasts were stolen for beef. The ‘poddy-dodging’ was a particularly serious problem, as it was very difficult to check thefts of unbranded stock.
1940		Dly Mercury (Mackay, Qld) 31 Aug. 6/4: Districts where ‘poddy dodging’ (stealing a calf from the cow) was carried on.
1950		‘Neville Shute’ Town like Alice 263: They’ll come on to your station and round up the poddys and drive them off on to their own land, and then there’s nothing to say they’re yours. That’s poddy-dodging.
1957		R.S. Porteous Brigalow 61: Mick did a bit of poddy-dodging when things were slack. He might lift a few head of cleanskins now and then.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 81: You can still hear some bloke get accused of poddy-dodging and the accuser will be told to pull his head in.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 47: The popularity of this form of robbery [i.e. cattle-rustling] can be judged from various terms used to describe it — poddy-dodging, duffing, gully-raking.