Where "Pash" Comes From
Simply a shortening of "passion" — the word turns up in that fuller form in popular song lyrics as far back as the 1930s ("'S Wonderful" uses "tender pash" in a 1957 recording, though the underlying usage is older still). It wasn't coined in Australia.
What Australian English did do is narrow the shortened form down to a specific, versatile little word: a "pash" is a make-out session, having "a pash" on someone is a crush, and your "pash" can be the person themselves — "I had such a pash for my pash that we started pashing" genuinely uses all three senses correctly.
Source:
"They were pashing at the back of the bus."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Used casually to describe a passionate kiss or make-out session, often with a bit of teasing or gossip attached — "they were pashing at the back of the bus" is the kind of line that gets repeated around school the next day.
It's a light, cheeky word rather than a crude one, well-worn into everyday Australian teenage vocabulary for decades.
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