Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bodge, bodgie-boy) the equivalent of a teddy boy.

1951		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 2 Mar. 5/4: The male is the ‘bodgie’ and the female is the ‘weegie’ [...] their exercise is jitterbugging.
1952		H. Boyle Associated Press 10 Sept. n.p.: A bodgie is a jitterbug-crazy boy ‘who wears his hair curled and long and a sport coat too big for him’ [W&F].
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 11: These bodgies are a bloody menace [...] If I had me way I’d put every motor bike off the road.
1962		C. Rohan Delinquents 52: I’m not keen on Nashos [...] I prefer bodgies.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 185: Besides being a vandal and a bodgie-boy I had become a fairly good lover. [Ibid.] 228: Smart guy, eh, bodge?
c.1970		‘The Road to Gundagai’ at warrenfahey.com 🎵 There’s a bodgie there beside her, and I’ll bet my balls he’ll ride ’er.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 65: The Dirty Half Mile [...] where the bodgies and widgies and pimps and other members of the Cross younger set preferred to mingle .
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 17/1: bodgie young Australasian males in 1950s aping American and/or British fashions for duck’s arse (hair swished back with excessive application of Brylcreem), poker faces, stovepipe trousers, winklepickers, given to such assertiveness the New Zealand government of the day ordered a report on this youth threat.
1992		R.G. Barrett Davo’s Little Something 18: Dad was a bodgie and the old girl was a widgie.
1999		(con. 1950–56) G. Seal Lingo 109: The hairstyle referred to here was usually known as a cornel wilder and was one of a number of US cuts affected by bodgies, including the short all over crew cut, the almost bald gi cut and the longer ducktail tail.
2006		P. Carey Theft 20: Even the bodgies and widgies would throw eggs at the barber’s windows.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 35: His ‘damned impertinence,’ according to the Silver Bodgie.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1964		Sydney Morn. Herald 14 Nov. 2/9: ‘Bodgy’ which used to mean something badly done, became the male half of the bodgie-widgie duo.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 136: The kinda haircuts youse got are square now in Sydney. Mine’s the latest bodgie haircut, Continental Style.

3. anything worthless; thus pull a bodgie v., to pose as something one is not.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: bodgie: A useless article. A dud.
1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 41: The dees looked at the book [...] ‘Likely bodgie.’ ‘Yep.’.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 21: Bodgie Phoney.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 64: Shane goes with Macka to look at a set of wheels. Macka reckons he’s got the clues and can pick a bodgie a mile off.

4. a misfit, a person who does not ‘fit in’.

1970		B. Oakley Salute to the Great McCarthy 65: This clean-living country lad! I don’t want him ruined by any of your pimply office bodgies, do you understand?
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 90: Canvas bags with flap, grubby and open, the kind favoured and discarded by the international army of hirsute stowaways, bus travellers, hitch-hikers and bodgies.

5. a loafer.

1987

M. Bail Holden’s Performance (1989) 159: I can depend on you. You’re not one of those slack bodgie types who leave chewing gum on the seats and who’ve never done a fucking day’s work in their lives.