Green’s Dictionary of Slang

never-never, the n.1

also the never-never country, the never-never land, the never
[first used in 1833 of the ‘Never-never blacks’, the name gained wide popularity with the book We of the Never-Never (1908) by Mrs Aeneas Gunn; despite the logic of the English term, it may in fact come from Comderoi nievah vahs, unoccupied land, although this equally may be pure coincidence; on either count it precedes J.M. Barrie’s coinage in Peter Pan (1904); note Aborigine use as ‘heaven’ in Boldrewood (1888): ‘I want to die and go up with him to the never-never country parson tell us about’]

(Aus./N.Z.) the deep, deserted interior of Australia; thus the Never-Never Countryman, on who lives in the deep outback.

Show quotations
[F. de Brebant Cooper Wild Adventures in Aus. 68: With the aid of three stock-keepers [...] I had the cattle mustered, and the draft destined for the Nievah vahs ready for for the road. [Footnote]: Nievah vahs, sometimes incorrectly pronounced never nevers, a Comderoi term signifying unoccupied land].
[Aus]Brisbane Courier 22 Nov. 3/6: [These are] two essentials that, had they been earlier attended to, might have left the Never Never country in a far healthirt condition, commercially speaking, than it at present is.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Apr. 4/1: The Herald of the Nevah-Nevah country, under its new proprietary, publishes contributions by a writer who signs himself ‘Blunt Knife’.
A.W. Stirling Never Never Land: a Ride in North Queensland 5: The ‘Never Never Land,’ as the colonists call all that portion of it [Queensland] which lies north or west of Cape Capricorn.
[Aus]Cassell’s Picturesque Australasia I 279: In very sparsely populated country, such as the district of Queensland, known as the Never Never Country presumably because a person, who has once been there, invariably asseverates that he will never, never, on any consideration, go back.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 27: Here it seems to be Never-Never country, and no mistake.
[UK]A.J. Vogan Black Police 85: The scene before us is the heart of the weird ‘Never, Never Land’ so called by the earliest pioneers.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Aus. Cinematograph’ in Roderick (1972) 457: No hope to the south, where Dead men’s Tracks run for hundreds of miles, inside the ‘Never’.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘No Place for a Woman’ in Roderick (1972) 399: I rode back that way five years later, from the Never Never.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 4/6: This particular doctor has had Government billets before in the never-never country and lost them through crooking his elbow too assiduously.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 1 June 3/3: The Never-Never Countryman handed the Jew a hot one on the nose.
[Aus]J. Gunn We of the Never-Never (1962) Prelude: Called the Never-Never, the Maluka loved to say, because they who have lived in it and loved it, Never-Never voluntarily leave.
[NZ]Truth Perth) 19 Mar. 9/8: Send them to the Never Never / (Gawd forbid they shed go there!).
[NZ]‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 1: [W]e tackle war much as we would a game of football or a big round-up in the Never-Never.
[Aus]R.H. Knyvett ‘Over There’ with the Australians 22: Way out back in the Never Never Land of Australia there lives a patriotic breed of humans who know little of the comforts of civilized life.
[UK]Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 287: Something had happened to him in the Never-Never.
[Aus]A.W. Upfield House of Cain 102: Certainly we are now well into the Never-Never country.
[Aus]T. Wood Cobbers 175: The aboriginals have added new words to the English language [...] drover, billy, never-never.
[Aus]Townsville Daily Bull. 24 May 5/1: ‘We of the Never-Never’ were playing cards.
[Aus]E. George Two at Daly Waters 23: Bakers were unknown in the Never Never.
[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 21: I went out into the Never-Never Land — deep into the heart of the Outback and down into the red centre, the desolate dead heart of the continent.
[Aus]B. Hesling Dinkumization or Depommification 234: I [...] tried to accept the idea of Woolworth’s with a Never-Never branch.
[Aus]J. Doughty Gold in Blood 256: A thousand years hence it would be the same, the eternal Never-Never.
[Aus]R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 37: Never Never: Home of the outback Aborigines, meaning the desert regions of Australia.
[Aus]G. Seal Lingo 185: Many expressions still have currency among those who live the legend in the bush, the outback, the never-never, the back of beyond . . . especially among Aboriginal Australians.
[UK]Guardian 15 Jan. 🌐 [pic. caption] The Ghan enters a part of the Northern Territory known as the Never Never.
[Aus]in D. Andrew Aussie Sl.