Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus., also boshta, boshter-bosker) good.

1901		W. Aus. Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Feb. 14/6: ‘Eet should be a boshter feet and Heg-gar-ty who train him in my room will give Cul-len a bad time – marruk my wor-rd’.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 16/1: Firs’ week, all say ‘welly good cook, him boshter’; nex’ week begin smell ’em tucker; thir’ week tell me go hell, no good; then sack! Shealer blanky cow!
1903		Dly News (Perth) 24 Jan. 5/3: [advert] A BOSHTER BOOT SALE IS NOW ON AT HUNTER’S CITY BOOT PALACE.
1903		Eve. Star (Otago) 10 Aug. 5: Watch Millie and Ruby CLARE, / They are boshter, I swear.
1904		Leader (Melbourne) 26 Nov. 42/1: It’s a minah’s – a real boshter of a nest. Say we go and have a look at it’.
1906		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Dec 15/3: [A] barber in Paddington [Sydney] proclaimed himself, in drunken and disorderly capitals which wandered all over his shop front ‘The Boshter Barber’.
1907		Eve. Post (Wellington) 14 Feb. 8: [T]he Chinese were having a ‘Tai yat’ time - the sort of time that the average Briton calls ‘A1,’ ‘first-class,’ or - the very latest - ‘bosca’ or ‘boshta’.
1909		N.Z. Truth (Wellington) 20 Feb. 3: No, it was Boshter Bill Squires’ own showing during the fight which did so.
1910		Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: When you hear a ‘boshter bloke’ / In the street, / Tell a ‘cobber’ of the ‘tart’ / He’s to meet [etc] .
1910		‘Dryblower’ in Mirror (Perth) 27 Apr. 4/3: And we wear, as you’ll rightly suppose, / None but the boshterest boots. / Galoots!
1912		Huon Times (Franklin, Tas) 12 June 2/6: According to the youngsters, their Hobart trip was ‘boster’.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Stoush O’ Day’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 29: The champeen backs an’ fills, becos / ’E doesn’t feel the Boshter Bloke ’e was.
1915		Geelong Advertiser (Vic.) 31 July 8/3: Leaving camp at 11 a.m. we proceeded to the tram, had a ‘clean boot, sah,’ for half a ‘disaster’ (piastre), and reached Cairo in time for lunch, which we had at the Petrograd restaurant, a very decent place, where we had a boshta lunch for twelve ‘disasters.’.
1916		N.Z. Times (Wellington) 22 3: Someone told us that out new programme is ‘bosker,’ or ‘boshter’; we don’t know what he meant, but suppose it’s all right.
1919		E. Dyson ‘Hello, Soldier!’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 87: Singin’ people on the sand / Makes a boshter Happy Land!
1918		Casttlemaine Mail (Vic.) 8 May 4/1: So at larst they maid Bill Mare and he wos the boshterest Mare of the lot.
1918		N.Z. Truth (Wellington) 20 July 1: ‘One from the ‘’Loo’ asks: ‘Is ‘bosker’ a purely Australian word, or is it an importation from the Old Dart?’ ‘Bosker’ is the Australian equivalent of a word that has fallen out of general use in Britain for over a century. ‘A ‘bosky’ time’ meant a good time, the same as ‘bosker’ time now does.
1927		North-Eastern Wheatbelt Tribune (Wyalkatchem, WA) 26 Feb. 2/3: [advert] The Famous ‘BOSHTER BEER’ has arrived. Try it – it’s Boshter.
1929		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Nov. 6S/8: ‘There was me amongst the church elite; / Sittin’ on me seat, screwin’’em a treat. / When the bloke that runs the gospel joint / Comes to the church to link ’em; / All at wunce I ’ears a boshter brawl’.
1932		N. Lindsay Saturdee 41: With a grief-stricken howl of ‘Me only boshter taw,’ he leaped for Bulljo.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: boshter . . . great.
1950		Courier Mail (Brisbane) 17 Apr. 2/4: When you say a thing is ‘boshter’ you are speaking a dead language: the proper word [...] is bosker.
1958		Northern Suburbs Weekly (Adelaide) 20 Nov. 2/2: [advert] Deep Freeze Fish and Veg., Cool Drinks, Boshter Beer, Shandy and Dinner Ale.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 105: Boshter, bosker: very good.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 17/2: bonzer excellent, most pleasing, attractive; possibly imported with goldrushes, from Spanish ‘bonanza’; aka [...] boshter, bosker.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2004		J. Lambert Macquarie Aus. Sl. Dict. 26/1: boshter: obsolete term equivalent to bonzer (see entry).

2. on good terms with, popular.

1910

L. Esson Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 62: You busk outside the pubs for beer. Oh, you’re boshter with the tarts, ain’t you, singing your pretty songs.

3. (also boshta) extreme, irrespective of quality.

1915

A.J. McNaughton diary 4 June 🌐 I have got a boshta headache from the vibrations through the air.