Green’s Dictionary of Slang

charlie wheeler n.

(Aus.) a woman.

1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 102: The stock little Charlie Wheeler said to me, ‘I’m having a party soon’.
1955		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Feb. 48: They’ve propped for a while because the town hall, when it landed, came down fair on the skull of a charlie wheeler and she’s out like a flamin’ light.
1968		D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 123: The joint jumps every night, the pubs make a fortune, the charlie-wheelers come in in droves.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 11: They were dressed in the uniform of the day. Gucci terrace of houses and dicky dirts from the op-shops for the blokes and jeans and slogan carrying T-shirts for the Charlie Wheelers. [Ibid.] 3: ‘I’m a shitkicker meself, what do youse do for an earn?’ ‘We are students of literature,’ the Charlie volunteered.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 14: ‘Howdja like to go a couple of rounds with that particular charley?’.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 66: And when the Members’ charlies or cheeses got a load of Lady Cynthia they all started doing likewise for an entirely different reason.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 89: Names of prominent, and even not so prominent, people, and even department stores, have always proved fertile sources of Australian rhyming slang, such as [...] charlie wheeler for sheila (a girl or woman), usually just charlie and originally from the name of artist Charles Wheeler (1881–1977).
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 40/2: Charlie Wheeler n. one’s wife, female partner.
2002		Pete’s Aussie Sl. Home Page 🌐 Charlie Wheeler, Charlie: a sheila.