Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rort n.1

also wrought
[rort v.1 ]
(Aus./N.Z.)

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

[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 4/8: ’Struth! I’ve broke from the rorts and the roughies / The totes and the poker machines.
[Aus]E.G. Murphy Dryblower’s Verses 50: A bank roll unto him is ‘Oscar Asche’ / A swindle is to him a ‘joke’, a ‘wrought.’.
[Aus] ‘The Dying Bagman’ in Seal (1999) 96: He’d learnt all the rorts as a whaler, / But alas he will battle no more.
[Aus]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’.
[Aus]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.
[Aus]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.’.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Real Thing 13: Remember when we had that rort going through Melbourne customs with those Mercedes.
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Rort. An advantage obtained by devious methods.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 242: They’ve pulled an insurance scam. Sherry Waldren’s in on the rort too.
[NZ]D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 37: wrought n. 1. A pack of lies — ‘what a wrought!’.
[Aus](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.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 175: rort 1. Scam, like the dubious welfare claims the authorities are trying to stop.
[Aus]S. Maloney Sucked In 151: We’ve got a load on our plates [...] pressing our advantage on the travel rorts scandal.
[Aus]C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] labor rorts, yells the Herald Sun.

2. (Aus.) a prank.

[Aus]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.

[Aus]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.

[Aus]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.

In phrases

pull a wrought (v.)

(NZ prison) to trick, to act duplicitously.

[NZ]D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 37: wrough v. 2. ‘To pull a wrought’ - to trick, swindle, conspire.