A sundowner is an itinerant worker, also known throughout Australia and New Zealand as a swagman, swaggie or tussocker. These transient temporary workers walked from farm to farm looking for work, often carrying all of their belongings ("swag") with them.
Examples of use[]
- "The only people who come through now are Maoris and sundowners!" spoken by Jim in the colonial short story "The woman at the Store" by Katherine Mansfield, written in 1911.
Source[]
Mansfield, Katherine. "The Woman at the Store" in The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, pages 464-473. Ware: Wordsworth Classics. 2006.