Ok, so I had to look up battler, for anyone else out there I will save you from reading the 32 page paper written up on the cultural shift over time in the usage of the term:
In conclusion, battler is a culturally symbolic term describing the Australianidentity, even though the definition of battler can be interpreted in different waysdepending on the context. It has a negative connotation of someone who is poorand struggling to survive; it also has a positive connotation of being a hero,someone who is overcoming adversity through hard work and perseverance. Inaddition, battler is also commonly used as a class term to describe ordinarypeople in contemporary newspaper and media texts. However, even though theword battler has different interpretations, it is worth noting that word choices arealways open to speakers and these preferences help point to their underlyingcultural values. It is vital to understand what people mean by certain words intheir culture, and the values behind the word, in order to accurately understandtheir culture. Despite American and British cultures having similar values interms of admiring showing effort and meeting challenges, only AustralianEnglish has lexicalised the term to describe this praise for the fighting spirit. Theentrenchment of this sense of battler clearly shows the Australian cultural identitythrough Australians’ use of the word.. Therefore, it is worthwhile to undertakefurther research about specific cultural terms in particular varieties of English inorder to enhance intercultural understanding.