sundowner: a swagman (see) who is NOT looking for work, but a “handout”. Lawson explains the term as referring to someone who turns up at a station at sundown, just in time for “tea” i.e. the evening meal. In view of the Great Depression of the time, these expressions of attitude are probably unfair, but the attitudes are common enough even today.
Surry Hills: Sydney inner suburb (home for this transcriber)
swagman (swaggy): Generally, anyone who is walking in the “outback” with a swag. (See “The Romance of the Swag” in Children of the Bush, also a PG Etext) Lawson also restricts it at times to those whom he considers to be tramps, not looking for work but for “handouts”. See ‘travellers’.
’swelp: mild oath of affirmation = “so help me [God]”
travellers: “shearers and rouseabouts travelling for work” (Lawson).
whare: small Maori house—is it used here for European equivalent? Help anyone?
whipping the cat: drunk