poley, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

poley adj.

[colloq. poley, one-horned (of cattle) or broken (of a utensil’s handle), thus a pun on croppie n. (1), a convict who has lost their ‘horns’, i.e. hair]

(Aus. Und.) wanted by the police.

1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Aug. 2/7: A wild looking man […] who responded to the name of Henry Bull, and who only lacked the horns of his patronymic (being a poley), was summoned.
1884		J.B. Martin Reminiscences 14: These men [i.e. police] […] zigzagged about […] in search of what they called their ‘poley cattle’ [i.e. bushrangers] [AND].