Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) an Aboriginal.

1907		implied in sense 2.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July 22/2: None of the abos. dared let any other get hold of such awful powers; hence the charm, wearer and all, was indispensable.
1916		All Abaht It Nov. 10: We have a full-blood ‘Abor,’ / Throws the boomerang real well.
1920		Cairns Post 30 Sept. 5/1: [headline] Abo Found Drunk.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 138: The abos are different – nicer than any I’ve ever seen before.
1938		F. Blakeley Hard Liberty 265: We let the Chinamen use bats, but the Abos had to play with round green sticks.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 5: He stopped the abo in three last Saturdee. What a punch! It was a bloody beaut.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 137: ‘Say, Guin, why don’t you live in a place with an elevator?’ ‘Garn. This house is a hundred years old.’ ‘Then it’s time they gave it back to the Abos.’.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 67: Y’know the Abos reckon it was a frog that made the Flood, don’cha?
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 225: Mum, one of those kids at school called me a black Abo.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 46: ‘Friggin’ abos and other boongs’.
1987		B. Chatwin Songlines 76: Surely this country’s only good for Abos?
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] I’m minding three abos and a chow.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 151: Same in New South Wales, Abos and pakis were fair game to us.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 81: She always said no to Abos and policemen.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] The usual Fremantle crowd. Workers and Abos and deros and Rajneeshees – every third person a nutcase.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1907		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 14/2: [He] says Chinese extract the gall-juice of crows for physic. All Abo-shine.
1919		Cairns Post 30 Sept. 4/5: [headline] Abo Influenza Victims.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Feb. 20/3: His abo. name was Meetroo Tahtoo, which means ‘sleepy-head’.
1922		‘Te Whare’ Bush Cinema 38: An ‘abo’ legend attaches to the great bluff between Bermagni and Tathra [OED].
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 115: Who’s paying? [...] Abo Department?
1938		Townsville Daily Bulletin 17 June 3/8: We want more protection for the true aborigine, his native game and aboland.
1968		D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 30: ‘What’s Luxor?’ ‘Abo baccy. Pretty potent, an’ a bit coarse.’.
2009		P. Temple Truth 277: ‘Sad boy, the Lovey Dovey,’ said Burgess. ‘Not a mixer. The Abo chip’.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘Takes a judge to overturn a conviction. For an Abo, I don’t think so.’.

3. (Aus.) an expert on Aborigine and bush customs and folktales.

1912

Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Nov. 15/4: It’s all very well for all these bushy ‘Abos’ to keep slinging off at the immigrant idiot, and his throw-the-cow-to-milk-her performances.