subs. phr. (Australian).—See quot.
1890. A. J. VOGAN, The Black Police, xiii. 217. ‘STRINGY-BARK,’—a curious combination of fusil oil and turpentine, labelled ‘whisky.’
Adj. (Australian).—Rough, uncultured; hence mean, ne’er-do-weel: equivalent to ‘bush,’ and usually in contempt.
1833. New South Wales Magazine, i. Oct., 173. I am but, to use a colonial expression, ‘a STRINGY-BARK carpenter.’
1853. C. RUDSTON READ, What I Heard, Saw, and Did at the Australian Gold Fields, iii. 53. After swimming a small river about 100 yards wide he’d arrive at Old Geordy’s, a STRINGY BARK settler.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, 30. He was a Larikin of the Larikins, this tiny STRINGY-BARK, who haunted my thoughts.
