English▸ noun Australian English historical a gang of boisterous, often badly behaved young men, particularly in an urban area:
these youth gangs can be traced back to the cabbage-tree mobs of the 1850s
inadequate policing of the streets enabled the cabbage-tree mob to roam at night assaulting people.
– ORIGIN mid 19th century: from cabbage tree + mob. The gangs wore cabbage-tree hats as a badge of identity.