Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. London.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 6/1: ‘Rannie’ Want is getting a tremendous practice in London, and has more appeal cases before the Privy Council than any other lawyer in the ‘Big Smoke.’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 14/1: King Kalakaua, of Hawaii, is to visit London in October. According to this he may be a fellow-passenger to the Big Smoke with his ambassador aforesaid.
1897		Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 27 May3/2: On June 5 [he] leaves for London, opening at four more music halls in the ‘big smoke’ on August 2.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 330: The first man I spoke to was Whitechapel to the backbone [...] I desired to know what brought him so far from the ‘big smoke.’.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 12/4: Londoners like her, and her portraits are in prominent display all over the Big Smoke.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Mar. 2nd sect. 10/6: A certain English ‘captain’ who took the knock on one or two of our well-known bookmakers, and finally cleared back to Engband. The latest to take the knock [...] is another ‘captain’ from the Big Smoke who owes sundry tenners on the Terrace .
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Aug. Red Page/4: If she makes the shed before cut out, legpullers at Big Smoke and the Wowserless One will receive straight tip to collect their cheques.
1918		E.M. Roberts Flying Fighter 267: I was detailed to a good squadron near the ‘Big Smoke’.
1923		Truth (Wellington) 28 Apr. 5: Miss Phyllis Beadon, a London comic opera soprano, and star player of musical comedy roles in ‘The Big Smoke’.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 9: ‘Last night in the big smoke, boyo’.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 164: There’s nae better place in a’ the Big Smoke.
1939		Western Mail (Perth) 30 Nov. 2/1: If you get leave to visit the Big Smoke, buy some decent strides.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 67: I’ve got to be pushing off back to the Big Smoke.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 160: What’s new over there in the Big Smoke?
1999		Guardian Guide 15–21 May 74: An idiosyncratic, entertaining portrait of the Big Smoke.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 41: I was [...] to head off to the Big Smoke.
2016		JOE.co.uk 🌐 ‘About Us’ [...] [I] lived in Cardiff for seven years, and eventually moved to London when the magnetic pull of the Big Smoke just became too much to resist.

2. any (large) town or city.

1848		H.W. Haygarth Recollections of Bush Life in Aus. 6: As he gradually leaves behind him the ‘big smoke’ (as the aborigines picturesquely call the town), the accommodations become more and more scanty .
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 26 Jan. 258: The Indians of N. America call a city ‘the Big Smoke’.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 BIG SMOKE — City.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 169: The eight pubkeepers now began doubling, then trebling, then quadrupling their orders to the breweries in the big smoke.
1958		W.E. Harney Content to Lie in the Sun 43: A stockman who had been for a holiday to the ‘big smoke’.
1961		(ref. to 1930s) W.E. Harney Grief, Gaiety and Aborigines 21: I do notice the city people go into the bush for a holiday and pass by us bushies heading for the ‘Big smoke’.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 88: In the big smoke people spend their lives on making a lot less than this.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 8: Big smoke: A country expression for any large city.
1997		T. Winton Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 3: She was back in the big smoke.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2021		Betoota-isms 179: [T]he shared aspirations of kids in the bush and the big smoke.

3. (Aus.) Sydney, NSW; also attrib.

1895		Truth (Sydney) 5 May 4/7: Our country Cousins should make it a golden rule, while on a visit to the ‘big smoke,’ never to enter into a confidential chat with any stranger who accosts them in the street.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 214: It’s no odds to us, so long’s the creeks don’t rise and block us goin’ to the big smoke.
1948		S.L. Elliott Rusty Bugles I i: Sydney, eh? How is the Big Smoke?
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 188: Sydney here I come . . . the Big Smoke.
1965		R.H. Conquest Horses in Kitchen 35: She was a Big Smoke sheila who’d married a local cocky.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 23: Then sometime at our leisure [...] we can ease our way gently out of the big smoke.
1987		M. Bail Holden’ s Performance (1989) 290: Jimmy [...] is a half-blood from the Territory. Doesn’t like the big smoke.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 230: A young bloke, fresh out of a school from the big smoke, has just arrived to begin work as a jackeroo on a cattle station.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 11: My father’s father [...] came up to the ‘big smoke’ from Wagga.
2022		D. Andrew Aussie Sl. 11: ‘Big Smoke’ Sydney.

4. (Aus.) Melbourne.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Apr. 12/3: A Victorian bride-elect, with money to spend, is at present rejoicing in the safe arrival of her trousseau, forwarded by smart relatives from the Big Smoke.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 230: Vera was a fresh faced eighteen-year-old from some place in country Queensland, who had come to the big smoke.

5. (Aus.) Brisbane.

1904		Truth (Brisbane) 10 Apr. 5/3: [He] paid a visit to the ‘big smoke’ [...] Dressed in his Sunday best, then, he landed in Brisbane one morning and started round to see the sights.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Hoodoo Tour’ in Bulletin 18 Nov. 38/4: ‘It’s the Big Smoke for us to-morrer, boy. We’ll catch the rattler for Brisbane’.

6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1931

Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl.

7. (N.Z.) Auckland.

1973

P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 146: I’d rather go up to Auckland. The Big Smoke.

8. (Irish) Dublin.

1987

C. Nolan Under the Eye of the Clock 50: The Meehans were moving to the Big Smoke. The rednecks were going to meet the Molly Malones.