Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./N.Z.) to steal; to get hold of.

1903		Critic (Adelaide) 14 Nov. 11/1: It was quite on the cards that the man who took it [...] could, as he coarsely put it, ‘get down on - the stuff.’ By which he meant that it was possible, for one less strictly honest than another who was more so, to pinch a bit.
1904		Truth (Perth) 25 June 1/1: The case of the young Laverton postmaster [...] who last week got 18 months for getting down on £200, the property of the Commonwealth, deserves more than passing notice.
1918		Daylesford Advocate (Vic.) 15 Jan. 3/3: Reginald de Courcy, a bank clerk, gets down on the funds of the bank, and for a while, has a wild and whirling time of gaiety.
1924		World (Hobart, Tas) 18 Apr. 5/4: Ungrateful Princess Gets Down On Jewellery [...] Ex-princess Olga Roslovski [...] has been sentenced to eight months’ for stealing money and jewellery from society people who sheltered her.
1946		Mirror (Perth) 23 Nov. 18/1: ‘Getting Down On Cash’ ‘Creagh said: “I’ve been getting down on the cash”, and I asked: “How much?” Creagh said: “About £3000 to £4000. I did it gambling”.’.
1959		Bulletin 27 May 59: Some –’s got down on me rum I planted in the grass under me hut.
1969		Bulletin 23 Nov. n.p.: ‘I say, mate, yer didn’t get down on that grog, did yer?’ ‘Me! I don’t bludge on me mates.’.
1980		L. Leland Kiwi-Yankee Dict. 44: (to) get down on: does not mean ‘to go down on’, although there are similarities. ‘I’m getting down on that tin of biscuits at the rate of knots.’ I’m eating that jar of cookies very quickly.
1988		McGill Dict. Kiwi Sl. 48/2: get down on to steal; eg ‘Let’s get down on some of these stereos, eh?’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].