Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) nothing to eat, just a ‘look-around and a cough’ (or an act of urination).

1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 364: ‘I had a drover’s breakfast when I got to work. A cigarette and a walk around’.
1990		Sun. Tel. (Sydney) 21 Jan. 184: Just as many Aussies will settle for a Pommy’s Breakfast — a cup of tea and a smoke — or a Drover’s Breakfast — a look around and a cough [GAW4].
2005		posting at www.moonofalabama.org 15 Oct. 🌐 But sheeple will wake up and have a drovers breakfast (a quick piss and a look around).
2013		K. Richards Dict. Phrase & Fable [ebook] Drover's. breakfast. A leak and a lookaround.

(Aus.) a useless or insignificant person, a drudge.

1978		T. Davies More Aus. Nicknames 44: The Drover’s Dog Never stops working.
1983		Sydney Morning Herald 14 May 1: Sir Kenneth’s retirement, aged 70, came fortuitously for the Labor Party: it enabled the party, having decided at last that Dr Bert Evatt was no drover’s dog, to find a soft landing for him as Chief Justice [GAW4].
1997		schedule for Digital Equipment Corporation State Conference 🌐 In this presentation Dr Ross Williams shows how even a drover’s dog can create a website using a text editor, an image editor, three flat rocks, and a piece of string.
2001		letter in Aus. Financial Rev. 2 Mar. 🌐 As for Paul Keating, since failing to get his own GST up in 1985, he has lacked the fortitude for tax reform even though the proverbial drover’s dog knew it was needed.
2002		(ref. to 1983) AustralianPolitics.com 🌐 Moves against Hayden had begun in earnest over the Christmas holiday period. Stoically accepting his removal, Hayden claimed that a ‘drover’s dog’ could lead the ALP to victory.

(Aus.) gossip and rumour, reified as an imaginary newspaper.

1959

Baker Drum.