Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) a fantasy outback station, used as a site for a variety of far-fetched tales; thus the tale itself; also attrib.

1890		Truth (Sydney) 16 Nov. 1/4: Dear Mr Truth—I have just returned from ‘the Spewah country’, where we have to crawl on our hands and knees to get under the clouds .
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 21 Dec. 1/2: [headline] Spielers, Spoofs and ‘Speewas’.
1911		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Aug. 14/3: If any snagger boasted of having shorn 32 sheep in the breakfast ‘run’, there was always someone present to mention that ‘Crooked Mick’, at Speewah, had done 33 in the same time.
1932		Townsville Daily Bull. 8 July 5/3: That puts me in mind of the last time I was on the Spewah in 1908 [...] blow my blanky eyes if I didn’t see a marvellous city ahead.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 142: I had heard of Speewa, that mythical station used as a setting for all the lies put over on new-chums [...] It’s a big place. When I was there they had to get two Chinese to mix the mustard with long-handled shovels.
1951		E. Hill Territory 445: On the Speewaa : A legendary station of doughty deeds – ‘I bet that happened on the Speewaa’. The original Speewaa Station is near Swan Hill on the Murray River, home of great men and tall tales in the very earlies.
1965		B. Wannan Fair Go, Spinner 64: I had a relation on Speewah station. He told me what he’d seen there; I won’t deny it sounds a lie But then I’ve never been there.
1979		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 May 1/2: Each must tell a speerwah, or bush yarn, for more than four minutes [GAW4].
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 17: Crooked Mick of the Speewa: A home-grown mythical Australian bush hero [...] Crooked Mick, apart from being able to do anything better than anyone else, was also a sometime thief, a drunkard and a liar. The Speewa itself was a mythical sheep station generally located on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, although it was sometimes moved to Queensland along with Crooked Mick himself to add to the authenticity of the lie or yarn being told.
1999		E. Fe Walker ‘Speewah Jack’ 🌐 Many years ago, hidden in the outback, lay the Speewah. Drovers dreamt of it, swaggies sang about it, shearers longed for it and city folk wondered where it was.
2002		D. Mulhallen ‘A Swag of Yarns’ 🌐 The Speewah is a big place out near the Never-Never, way past the legendary Black Stump, past the town of Woop Woop and somewhere between Gulargambone and Mooloogooloo. It’s way past the backblocks, in the land where the crows fly backwards (to keep the dust out of their eyes). [...] The most famous bloke in the Speewah was undoubtedly Crooked Mick. He was a giant of a man who was born way back when the Jenolan Caves were mere wombat holes and the River Murray was just a trickle of water.

2. (Aus.) a gullible individual, a victim of a confidence trick or sales pitch; i.e. one who is susceptible to a ‘tale’.

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 21 Dec. 1/2: [He] stands out on the footpath and lassoos the ‘speewas’ into the dark shops and sells them a full rig-out [...] before they have time to protest.