It's still common here, and probably doesn't strike quite as condescending for men to be called pet names, and men don't seem to do that to each other. Swagmen were called hobos here.
Men here just call each other mate, sometimes buddy. When I was a kid men sometimes called each other "China" (rhyming slang for "mate"), but I never hear that any more. Another one people occasionally use here is "bugalugs", usually for a 3rd person whose name you have forgotten, but sometimes directly as in "hey bugalugs!".
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BugalugsI guess people do use pet names in a condescending way in Australia, "mate" said with emphasis on the first (only) vowel sound and with an abrupt "T" sound and a slightly long "M" sound can be used to imply anger or dislike. But generally I don't notice stuff like that with pet names like "sweetheart" or "daaaarl" and assume it's just a bit of olde-style Australiana.
A swagman is similar to a hobo, but in Australia the swagman is more romanticised. A song about a swagman who steals a lamb was played as our anthem at the 1976 Olympics and was runner up (with 28% of the vote) when a vote was held regarding our choice of national anthem in the 70s. People have a much stronger emotional connection to that song than to the official national anthem, which is obvious at any big sporting event where both are played. A few people might mumble along to the national anthem but when Waltzing Matilda (about the thieving swagman) is played just about everyone is up on their feet and singing along.
When the swagmen were disappearing, dying or too old to walk any more, the newspapers would run articles on a regular basis, often on the front page, sadly chronicling the shrinking number of swagmen.
