Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any form of trick or deception, usu. qualified by a relevant noun, e.g. ‘New Labour election rort’.

1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 4/8: ’Struth! I’ve broke from the rorts and the roughies / The totes and the poker machines.
1924		E.G. Murphy Dryblower’s Verses 50: A bank roll unto him is ‘Oscar Asche’ / A swindle is to him a ‘joke’, a ‘wrought.’.
c.1936		‘The Dying Bagman’ in Seal (1999) 96: He’d learnt all the rorts as a whaler, / But alas he will battle no more.
1939		Townsville Dly Bulletin (Qld) 11 Feb. 4/5: The complaint arose out of booing of the judge’s decision in a race and a remark alleged to have been made by Hixon, a horse-owner, ‘It’s only a rort’.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 42: The rort was to make the cockies part up with their cash for enlargements of their dead papas and mammas. Ten quid for a pair of framed photographs which costs us a couple of quid.
1965		R.H. Conquest Horses in Kitchen 107: Willie, although an honest man, had what is known today as a gimmick. [...] We referred to it as ‘Willie’s rort.’.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 13: Remember when we had that rort going through Melbourne customs with those Mercedes.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Rort. An advantage obtained by devious methods.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 242: They’ve pulled an insurance scam. Sherry Waldren’s in on the rort too.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 95: My guess was that Toohey and Lil had been running some kind of blackmail rort.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 175: rort 1. Scam, like the dubious welfare claims the authorities are trying to stop.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 151: We’ve got a load on our plates [...] pressing our advantage on the travel rorts scandal.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] labor rorts, yells the Herald Sun.

2. (Aus.) a prank.

1946

Sun (Sydney) 21 Apr. 2/3: Any jest, jibe, surprise, or embarrassment suffered by a student or a number of students, is a ‘rort.’ A prank is appraised at its ‘rort’ value.

3. (Aus.) a job.

1983

J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 22: Another couple of jobs followed [...] But they went the same way, for the same reasons, as the other rorts.

4. (Aus. prison) a perk or bonus of a job.

1984

B. Ellem Doing Time 25: I serve the meals out here, I served them out say a stew, and I turn around and open up my tray and here’s some steak and baked potatoes and that type of thing which is one of the rorts of my job.