[The Australian Panther]

I suspect Emile Mercier was handing a backward compliment to this bloke, who wrote under Bill Bowyang and who he would have been well aware of.

Alexander Vindex Vennard (1884–1947)
https:adb.anu.edu.au/biography/vennard-alexander-vindex-8912

But to many of us, 'Bill Bowyang' is a more familiar term.
Note:-
Ben Bowyang
https:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bowyang

[Ben Bowyang was an Australian newspaper comic strip, first published in the Melbourne Herald on Saturday, 7 October 1933, created by the cartoonist Alex Gurney, that followed the misadventures of two archetypical Australian bushmen, Ben Bowyang and his mate, Bill Smith, of "Gunn's Gully": characters that first appeared in the humorous Herald columns written during the 1920s and 1930s by C. J. Dennis. ]
[The strip was also drawn by Mick Armstrong, Keith Martin, Sir Lionel Lindsay, Alex McRae, and Peter Russell-Clarke. It ceased publication in 1979.]
There were many collections of this strip and I hope, Dan, that you might be able to post some of them.
What's a bowyang?
["When I was a boy the bowyang was worn by
most bush-workers, and by labourers generally.
It is never seen today. The bowyang — in case
you do not know — is a strap worn just below
the knee of the trousers. Its purpose was to take
the drag from [the] braces or waist-belt, and to
lift the trouser-ends well clear of the ground. And
very comfortably it performed this service, too." ]
cheers!

Link to the comment: Exciting 'magpie' Comics