Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) an uneasy compromise, anything that fails to please either party in a dispute; often attrib.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Apr. 6/1: Weight and condition defeated loafers and long shandy-gaffs.
1890		Windsor and Richmond Gaz. 8 Nov. 4/4: The jumbled mixture [...] plainly shows the writer to be more familiar with shandygaff than English composition.
1897		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 2 Dec. 2/4: If yer gaun sing bass, sing bass; or if yer gaun sing tenor, sing tenor; but let’s have nae shandygaff.
1906		Morn. Post (Cairns, Qld) 24 Mar. 3/2: [headline] Shandygaff Politicians [...] Something Definite Wanted.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Oct. 4/8: He’s the Mayor, a real genuine Mayor, and none of your shandygaff nobodies.
1914		Register (Adelaide) 26 Aug. 8/4: The Premier made it clear [...] there was to be no shandygaff compromise.
1923		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 12 June 8/1: He does not want a shandygaff sort of thing that crawls one day to Conservatism and the next day dances to a true Socialist tune.
1931		Horsham Times (Vic.) 8 May 2/5: [headline] Shandygaff Petrol. the adulteration of petrol.
1941		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Dec. 2/3: [headline] Why A Shandygaff Blackout? Position regarding the black-out in metropolitan area has lay minds thoroughly puzzled.
1952		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Nov. 3/3: It is one of those shandygaff holidays when people mostly work.
1971		Hansard (Lords) ccv: He called it a kind of shandy gaff society, but whether it was the strong ale of socialism mixed with the lemonade of private enterprise or the other way about, he never made quite clear.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 183: shandygaff [...] 2. Poor performer, such as a weak government.