Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) docker.

1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 July 10/2: It was stored in a stack of strange goods and had the bumped appearance that comes after a fall. The wharfies concerned were evidently so rattled that they thanked their stars the thing hadn’t gone whooping up to Heaven, and left it where it fell.
1917		Cairns Post (Qld) 20 Dec. 4/4: [headline] A Wharfie Fined.
1928		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 22 June 7/3: The Wharfie. I walked to the wharf this morning.
1938		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 12 Nov. 3/3: We wharfies trapped an extra three hours on account of the ship not being able to get alongside.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 165: We watched while a lot of wharfies worked on a boat that was unloading guano.
1946		Northern Standard (Darwin, NT) 1 Nov. 10/4: Chuck [...] managed to get himself a medal in the wharfies’ union.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 49: A conchie, a seaman, a wharfie and a born rebel.
1954		R.W. Winks These New Zealanders 53: I have been on New Zealand docks and heard wharfies swear.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 192: Some people think wharfies have money squirting out of their ears.
1970		D. Butts Down Under Up Close 49: Another wharfie who was infamous for never doing his share [...] became known as ‘the London Fog,’ because he never lifted.
1982		Lowenstein & Hills Under Hook 6: Wharfies [...] worked on the frontiers of the nation in a hard, dangerous occupation. [Ibid.] 15: Wharfies have always been good drinkers. It’s the industry.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 122/2: wharfie waterside worker.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 45: The driver, an old wharfie, dropped them off at the crossroads.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 154: There are a number of often-heard yarns about foreign orders, one of which inevitably involves an old wharfie who every day walked his wheelbarrow past guards at the dockyard gate. Each day the security guard religiously checked the wheelbarrow and the wharfie for pilfered goods.
2001		C. Lee Eight bells & Top Masts 5: Dockers. Wharfies. Tallymen. Big boots. Caps.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 80: Wharfies, dockers, seamen, and assorted petty crims, prostitutes, standover thugs and lairs.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2009		P. Temple Truth 88: A wharfie, me dad [...] Bashed mum, bashed me, bashed us all.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I learned that female PIs [...] swear like wharfies, urinate frequently and dress dog-ugly.