Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a solo prospector, living out in the desert and characterized by surliness, taciturnity and general misanthropy.

1959		V. Palmer Big Fellow 268: What she had roused in him then had kept him from being quite the tough scrub-bull that he might have been.
1967		B. Oakley A Wild Ass of a Man 68: I’m different from the herd, and at that school they don’t like the wanderers, the scrub bulls who forage for their nourishment in their own way, alone.
1975		X. Herbert Poor Fellow My Country 702: The Scrub Bull, of all people, getting interested in settling the country .

a small farmer working tree-covered or otherwise rough land.

1882		letter in Australasian (Melbourne) 28 Jan. 25/2: I need not inform your able correspondent ‘Scrub Cockie’ that I am, and always was, against cutting up all the good part of the mallee.
1898		Richmond River Herald (NSW) 22 July 4/7: It would be as absurd to send him to Sydney to run our show in Parliament [...] as it would be to send a Big Scrub cockie to London as Agent-General — or nearly.
1905		Express & Teleg. (Adelaide) 17 June 3/8: A rough-looking scrub-cocky told a group of cronies, ‘My word, them blokes is dead strong. They’ll take yer money for a horse that ain't even startin’’.
1912		Register (Adelaide) 5 Apr. 7/1: Now I will try to show how the scrub cocky lives, his daily routine, his domestic utility [...] and his many peculiarities.
1924		Observer (Adelaide) 30 Dec. 47/5: If the Government could obtain them at something like 10/ a dozen it would mean a big saving to the scrub cockie, who could not afford to buy more than his requirements.
1936		Cairns Post (Qld) 15 Aug. 13/6: Cr. Dempsey remarked that tourist roads were being provided at the expense of the ‘scrub cockies’.
1945		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 28 July 4/2: Nowadays, to such an extent have we carried specialisation, we have the cow cocky, the fruit cocky, the cane cocky, the scrub cocky and, last but not least, the boss cocky.
1953		Port Lincoln Times (SA) 3 Sept. 2/2: 30 years ago ' scrub cockies ' used to swarm on to the wharves at Port Melbourne when a: migrant ship arrived with a cargo of ‘pommies.’ They would rush up the gangway, size up the new arrivals, take their pick and sign them up for farm work.

a wild bullock.

1876		Aus. Town & Country Jrnl (Sydney) 18 Nov. 22/3: D-n the brute! [...] he does not belong to the run at all. [...] He is one of those infernal scrub-danglers from the Lachlan, come across to get a feed.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 59: He is one of those infernal scrub-danglers from the Lachlan.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 166: If we can make a good haul out of these ‘scrub danglers’ we shall have together as fine a lot of fat cattle as ever left the Macquarie.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 67: Scrubbers, bush scrubbers, mulga scrubbers, mallee pikers, kangaroos, myalls, scrub danglers, runabouts, stock that have run wild and deteriorated in condition.

(Aus.) a flgiht (on horseback) into the bush in an attempt to avoid arrest.

1880

Queenslander (Brisbane) 25 Dec. 807/4: However, recovering himself, he tried for a ‘scrub dash,’ but the constable dragged him off the mare by main force, stopping his gallop at ‘one fell swoop’.

1. a contemptible woman.

1883		Mt Alexander Mail (Vic.) 21 May 3/4: There two publichouses every 10 or 12 miles. The landlady of one of theom poses in Melbourne society as a squatter’s wifo; Up here she is known as the Scrub Turkey.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 195: You scrub turkey! I’ve had better women than you’ll ever know how to be. Women, real women, I’ve had. Not like you – not grubby, dirty bitches like you.

2. an itinerant who moves around the Australian bush, whose long absence from urban life may have rendered them slightly eccentric.

1955		A. Marshall I Can Jump Puddles 152: Father [...] was familiar with the ways of swagmen [...] The bearded men who kept to the bush he called ‘Scrub Turkeys’ and those who came down from the plains he called ‘Plain Turkeys’.
1973		F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 178: Scrub Turkey, bagman who has gone Bush. Usually slightly mental or eccentic [AND].

1. the act of riding through bush or scrub in order to round up strayed cattle or horses; thus scrub-dasher, one who does this.

1896		Australasian (Melbourne) 14 Nov. 25/1: After several hours’ hard riding, much scrub-dashing [...] many a small bunch of cattle is collected.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 64: Scrub-dashing, riding through bush or scrub, esp. after strayed cattle or brumbies.
1957		J. Greenway ‘Aus. Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 168: scrub dasher, n. A stockman who works in the brush.

2. (Aus.) in general use of sense 1, travelling over rough country.

1899

Laverton Mercury (WA) 18 Nov. 2/4: Going across country is not ‘much chop’ - this is my opinion, having just negotiated the return journey after a considerable amount of ‘scrub-dashing’ with a bicycle.