Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) an itinerant seller of rabbits as food; also attrib.

[1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 1/5: In the highways and the byways / They’ll cry ‘fish!’ and ‘rabbit oh!’.
1902		Truth (Sydney) 11 May 5/7: The poor animal finishes its slavery in the shafts of the ‘bottle-oh’ van, or amidst the floggings of the ‘rabbit-oh’ push [AND].
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July 28/1: Immediately he was surrounded by a contingent of lorrymen, storemen, lift-boys, and ‘rabbit-o’ men. [...] ‘Leg broke, I think,’ ventured a purveyor of rabbits.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Aug. 36/2: ‘Wish ter Gawd a cyclone wud strike the big vat?’ wailed a rabbit-oh.
1911		A. Wright Gamblers’ Gold (1931) 54: He [...] engaged in the hopeless task of trying to win the Rabbit-O man’s money.
1911		Kalgoorlie West. Argus (WA) 7 Mar. 41/2: The pulsating personage with the highly developed rabbit-o or bottle-o voice.
1919		C.H. Thorp Handful of Ausseys 199: A chap we had christened ‘Rabbie’ because he had been a rabbit dealer.
1931		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Sept. 20/3: I happen to know that the rabbit-oh buys his wares at the markets.
1945		K. Tennant Time Enough Later 150: Mrs. Drew knew all about her neighbours from the butcher and the grocer and the rabbit-o [OED].
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 199: I turned the corner of my street to see the rabbit-o’s horse and cart.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxviii 10/3: rabbit o: The cry of the vendor of rabbits.
1975		Sydney Morning Herald 9 Apr. 1 Nov. 65: He is probably the last rabbit-oh in Sydney .
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 42: A ‘rabbitoh’ (now archaic) was one who sold rabbits for a living from door to door.
[2000		Bug (Aus.) 27 Mar. 🌐 After all, if you’re going to have a whopping eight finals contenders out of a field of 14, why not make it nine by throwing some Rabbitohs into the stew].