Green’s Dictionary of Slang

miserable adj.

tight-fisted, grasping, mean.

1903		J. Furphy Such is Life (1944) 17: The more swellisher a man is, the more miserabler he is about a bit o’ grass for a team, or a feed for a traveller.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 183: Not all bookies are miserable; some of them are happy-go-lucky, generous blokes.
1976		Australian 20 May 6: A ‘lousy dollar a day!’ Could any government be more miserable? [GAW4].
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 135: miserable Mean with money. ANZ from mid C19.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

as miserable as a bandicoot (adj.)

(Aus.) very depressed.

1951

Mail (Adelaide) 1 Dec. 2s/5: Australians have built up a vocabulary of some 7,000 slang words [...] ‘As miserable as a bandicoot’.