Origin of "cracked the sh**s"

I think this phrase is predominantly restricted to Australia, but with some use found in New Zealand. I've never heard it in British or American English, and wouldn't have understood it without suitable context.

Early use

The earliest example I found in Usenet is from 1994 in rec.motorcycles.dirt by someone in Melbourne, Australia:

The conrod, piston, bearings etc etc I ordered finally arrived in the hotel a couple of days after I checked out. The hotel let it sit there for another few days before they let me know. I cracked the shits over the phone and the hotel fell for it. They've paid for express delivery to Aus. He he he he he....

I was nearly in *DEEP* shit when I got home. Dumb me left that photo in my suit case. Wife wanted to know whose tits they were.

I found nothing earlier in Google Books or newspaper searches.

Possible derivation

My guess is the phrase is a combination of crack meaning to "open up" and the shit meaning "trouble". For example, from AllDownUnder.com's list of Australian slang phrases:

Crack a tinnie
Meaning: open a can of cold beer
Example: Come over to my place and we'll crack a tinnie.

And if someone is "in the shit", they're in (serious) trouble, as shown in the Usenet quote above and defined in this dictionary of Australian slang:

In the shit - in serious trouble.

And in A Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Eric Partridge/Paul Beale):

12. In in the shit, in trouble: low coll.: since mid-C.19. Often land (another) in the shit, or fall in the shit (oneself): since ca. 1879. Cf. the envious (e.g. he) could fall in the shit and come out smelling of violets (roses, etc.) 13. Hence, among soldiers in WW1, in the shit = in the mud and filth in mud and danger; in great and constant danger. [P.B.: E.P. was one of those soldiers, and no doubt wrote this entry with feeling.]

So crack the shits could be derived from losing one's temper and putting other people in deep trouble.

It is a variation of "get the shits", which means to to become angry, upset or short tempered (as well as the more literal meaning of getting diarrhea). Related phrases are to "get shitty" or to "be shitty", including getting shitty with someone or at someone.

While "get the shits" implies a level of sulking, to "crack the shits" is taken to mean a sudden attack of anger. Other Australian slang phrases use chucking or cracking (often interchangeably) to mean a sudden movement or change of mood, such as chucking or cracking a u-ey (a sudden u-turn while driving), chucking a wobbly or cracking a fat.