Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) a supposed ‘whisky’, actually made of turpentine and fuel oil; thus bad liquor in general.

1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 May 2/3: -The Drunkards' Sheet at the Police-office on Monday numbered forty male and female sacrificants to hard stuff, stringy bark, and gin and bitterness.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 Feb. 3/4: Early oh Sunday morning Foley patronized Cardwell for a little stringy bark.
1890		A.J. Vogan Black Police 217: Participating in a number of ‘nips’ of ‘stringy bark’ – a curious combination of fusil oil and turpentine, labelled ‘whiskey’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 240/1: stringybark – bad liquor.

2. beer.

1876		Sydney Morn. Herald 11 May 3/4: There is always plenty of ‘stringy-bark’ or colonial beer about.
1885		J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 59/1: The landlord [...] stood behind the bar, serving what is familiarly termed ‘stringy-bark’.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 29: As this larikin usually termed it, [i.e. beer] ‘swanky,’ or ‘stringy bark.’.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 136: STRINGY BARK: slang applied to the very inferior beer brewed and sold in the country parts of Australia.
1931		(con. 1831) Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Apr. 56: Rum was the drink taken in those days; [slum women] did not like ‘stringy bark’ as beer was called at that time.
2000		(con. 1855) Age (Melbourne) 25 Apr. 52/2: The Colonial ale enjoyed such derogatory nicknames as ‘sheep wash,’ ‘tangle-foot’ [...] ‘stringybark’ and ‘shypoo’.

3. see stringybarker under stringybark adj.