According to my Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms (was being culled at the school library where I worked, and is a very handy book) "stoush" was first noted in print in 1893, so it's been around for a while. Used as a verb it means to punch, but it mostly seems to be used as a noun - "he's up for a stoush". It's pronounced to rhyme with "ouch".

leeneia, our weatherboard would be like the American clapboard siding.