Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a young woman; poss. as sense 2.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 52/1: I feel mysen bloody awful ‘sweet’ on that thee-ir ‘ginger’.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 71: All right, my pretty ginger-cake. Ain’t she hot, Bill?
1914		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Jan. 3/3: If a red-hot piece of ginger / Like she are, do feel that way [etc].

2. (Aus.) a prostitute who robs her customer of his wallet.

1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 159: Ginger (fr pros sl) a dishonest prostitute.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 148: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: [...] ginger girl (U.K., robs the clients).

3. (Aus.) the act of robbing a prostitute’s client; thus gingering joint, a brothel where such practices are common.

1944, 1950, 1955		cited in G. Simes DAUS (1993).
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/2: Most of these are small-time criminals. When they are pulled in by the police, often enough it is because they have [...] ‘done a ginger,’ ‘tickled a peter’ or ‘worked a standover,’ all of which describe various forms of theft.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 484/2: since ca. 1930.