Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Aus.) an equitable opportunity, a reasonable chance.

1902		letter 11 Feb. in Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 23 Apr. 3/2: I hope to be back in sunny N.S. Wales at the end of April if I get ‘a fair crack of the whip’.
1913		Cairns Post (Qld) 19 May 7/4: As the bullocky would say, ‘They got more than a fair crack of the whip’.
1916		Taralgon Record (Vic.) 15 Dec. 3/2: That would give Foster a fair crack of the whip.
1920		West. Australian (Perth) 10 Apr. 8: Does not the Commissioner think that he is getting a fair crack of the whip?
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 179: I’ll see you get a fair crack of the whip now, Mr. Watt.
1936		Williamsgtown Chron. (Vic.) 14 Jan. 7/2: Why do I go to Keigs [i.e. a shop], you ask me! Because the value is always there, and one always gets a ‘fair crack of the whip’.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 2: I am sorry to have to tell you the Lord’s had a fair crack of the whip and He’s missed the bus.
1950		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 8 Mar. 3/4: I believe in a free Press so long as the paper gives everyone a fair crack of the whip.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 56: I had to put them on a rota, giving them all a fair crack of the whip as often as I could.
1959		Baker Drum.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 52: Eh, dickin on it, Lord! How’s about givin’ a man a fair crack o’ the whip.
1982		J. Davis Dreamers 117: You’ve had a pretty fair crack of the whip and it’s time I started puttin’ my foot down.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 24: Fair crack of the whip: Someone is not giving the utterer of the phrase a fair go.
1999		Guardian G2 12 Oct. 6: He has not been given a fair crack of the whip. Nobody is doing anything to help him.
2003		(con. WWII) D. Conroy Best of Luck 294: Even the cynics amongst us (about 95%) felt honour bound to give the adj. a fair crack of the whip, as the saying went.