In theory this should apply equally to Melbourne as it does to Sydney, but people in Melbourne think it is funny, so do I, people in Sydney do not and are very narrow minded.
When I speak of sheep, I am mostly talking about the ones with 4 legs and who are impossible to herd properly.
I used to work on a farm, for a short while I lived on one, but mostly I worked as a visitor, initially to my grandfather’s farm, later on my uncles and also on our own. While I mostly worked with cows, sometimes I work with sheep. So when I talk about sheep I really talk about sheep. I have herded them, castrated them, injected them with vaccinated them, and docked them. I have included a video from youTube on docking. It is perhaps the most gruesome thing I have ever done in my life. I mean, I have castrated lots of calves and sheep with the rubber ring gadget, but chopping of the tails of sheep is something again. My uncle had a gas powered knife. It was gas powered in that it has a gas hose to a bottle. The gas fed a burner that was on all the time. The burner made the blade hot. The hot blade cauterized the wound. I have not actually every slaughtered a sheep, this is more on the grounds of not being in the right place at the right time. I have seen the dead carcasses hanging up from their hooks.
The second definition I would use for sheep is an anglican one, though I guess it applies to other christian religions. If the lord is the shepherd, then the people are his flock, they are the sheep. This comes from the lords prayer which I used to have to read out so much when I was a child.
One of the funniest things I saw was in a comedy show in melbourne, in Fitzroy, while waiting in the foyer to see the Doug Anthony All Stars, the entire crowd started baaing. But i digress.
The use that people in Sydney seem unable to escape is that sheep mean prostitutes. I am guessing this, but it seems to best fit their view. I think that they really need to stop hating prostitutes. It counts in my eyes as bigotry and I am saddened by such a view, especially when it comes from those who have been oppressed by mainstream society themselves.