Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) a public house.

1897		Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/4: And — I will lay an oil-rag to a pound of ‘Darling Pea’ — / He gallops straight away towards a ‘rubbie’ for ‘a spree’.
1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: I rambled over to the Rubbity Dub and had a pint of Oh My Dear. In fact I had several and finished up in the dead house, broke to the wide.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Aug. 4/8: They gather at the rubby / Where the tarts are shine and chubby.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Aug. 4/8: I could do with two or three / In my Hay-street rubbie.
1909		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Feb. 4s/8: She likes a tid, and we drops into a few rubbies on the way up to Perth.
1911		E.S. Sorenson Bush Cooks in Life in the Aus. Backblocks 81: Others swamp their earnings at the wayside rubby, and have themselves to blame that they are every year humping bluey.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘Mick’ Dryblower’s Verses 34: So down at the rubby along the road, / We lunched on steak and eggs.
1924		Mail (Adelaide) 16 Feb. 1/4: She says to me, ‘Bill, you’re sure you’re not going to the rubber-dee’ (rubber-dee-dub — pub).
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 62: Rubberdy [...], a public house. Rhyming slang on ‘rub-a-dub-dub’ for ‘pub’ [...] Rubbity [...], a public house.
1944		Maurer & Baker ‘“Aus.” Rhyming Argot’ in AS XIX:3 195/1: Rubbity Rub. [...] A ‘pub.’.
1950		West Australian (Perth) 11 Mar. 22/7: A hotel is a rubbedy [...] or rubbedydub, a pub.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 104: ‘Where’s Jimmy an’ Pat?’ ‘Down the rubbity.’ ‘Bastards.’ [...] ‘What is a rubbity?’ [...] ‘Rubbity-dub.’.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 101: How about a gargle? Down to the rubberdy, come on.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 17: I’ve got to shoot through to the local rubbidy for a few ice cold beers.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 24: I’ll be waiting for you at the rubbity rearin’ to go.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 24: Why, you’d just as soon find Him around the rubberdy as not.
1969		A. Buzo Rooted II iii: Been down the rubbity lately?
1972		B. Wannan Folklore of the Aus. Pub 128: Rubbedy; Rubberdy; Rubbity; Rubby: a pub or other hostelry.
1978		N. Hilliard Glory and The Dream 166: ‘Anybody seen Charlie?’ ‘In the rubbity this arfto. He’s probably flakers.’.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 11: He paid his dump at the Cat and Fiddle hotel. The hallowed boards of the old Star rubbidy had been changed to that name to be in keeping with the area.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 15: The first news the boys at The Prince Charles rubbady copped about this particular meeting [etc].
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 76: Davo has a dead cert for the trots. It runs like a hairy goat so they go down the rubbedy for a quick one to drown their sorrows.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 94/2: rubbidy pub, rhyming slang ‘rub-a-dub/pub’; aka rubbity, rubbidy-dub, rubberdy and rubby.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers xxi: The Flea went down to the paper shop just up from the Coogee Bay rubbady.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 91: rubbidy-dub, a pub is often shortened to rubbidy, a usage recorded in the late 1890s, though certainly older.
2000		Bug (Aus.) 4 Aug. 🌐 That great Australian institution, the Don’t Know Rubbity. (Don’t know how we got here; don’t know how we got home!).
2002		Pete’s Aussie Sl. Home Page 🌐 rubbity dub, rubbity: a pub.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 176: rubbity The pub, as in ‘rubbity-dub’ rhyming slang. C19. Other spellings include rubby/rubberdy/rubbidy/rubbidy dub/rub-a-dub/rubblededub. ANZ late C19.

2. (Aus.) a wash, a ‘scrub’.

2016

Facebook 15 July 🌐 Well this morning I got up had a rubbedy dub, a dad and Dave then racked off to the watering hole for a dogs eye with dead horse.