1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 73:
"Cloncurry has, to use the mining parlance, duffered out."
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 58:
"`So you're duffered out again, Harry,' she said."
<hw>Dugong Oil</hw>, <i>n</i>. an oil obtained in Australia, from <i>Halicore dugong</i>, Gmel., by boiling the superficial fat. A substitute for cod-liver oil. The dugongs are a genus of marine mammals in the order <i>Sirenia</i>. <i>H. dugong</i> inhabits the waters of North and North-east Australia, the southern shores of Asia, and the east coast of Africa. The word is Malay.
<hw>Dug-out</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name imported into New Zealand from America, but the common name for an ordinary Maori canoe.
<hw>Duke Willy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Whistling Dick</i>.
<hw>Dummy</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) In Australia, when land was thrown open for <i>selection</i> (q.v.), the squatters who had previously the use of the land suffered. Each squatter exercised his own right of selection. Many a one also induced others to select nominally for themselves, really for the squatter. Such selector was called a dummy. The law then required the selector to swear that he was selecting the land for his own use and benefit. Some of the dummies did not hesitate to commit perjury. Dictionaries give "dummy, <i>adj</i>. fictitious or sham." The Australian noun is an extension of this idea. Webster gives "(<i>drama</i>) one who plays a merely nominal part in any action, sham character." This brings us near to the original <i>dumby</i>, from <i>dumb</i>, which is radically akin to German <i>dumm</i>, stupid.
1866. D. Rogerson, `Poetical Works, p. 23:
"The good selectors got most of the land,
The dummies being afraid to stand."