1. Prior to its modern usage, the word was used to describe a virus.
i.e. if many people are suffering colds and 'flu, you may hear older Australians say things like, 'there seems to be a wog going around'.
2. An abbreviation of
golliwog, a
black faced minstrel doll. The word was originally used by whites in England to described black people.
When the 10 pound
pomegranates (
poms) came to Aus. during the 'White Australia Policy' there weren't many blacks in the cities so the slang morphed to describe the darker skinned, dark haired locals which at the time were mainly Greeks and Italians.
Later as more Mediterranean immigrants arrived; Lebanese, Maltese, etc., they were also called
wogs.
Even caucasian looking immigrants were branded as wogs due to non-English accents. Eventually the word applied to any Australian without English heritage or surname, even those born in Aus. with Aus. accents, particularly if they had darker features.
Example:
These
wogs are ruining our country, even though they come here to get jobs, start businesses,
build houses, employ locals, buy goods and services and stimulate our economy which makes us all better off. The taxes they pay do help fund my unemployment benefits so I shouldn't really complain but I don't like to see wogs in
my city because I'm a racist arsehole.