Mural 8: Women in Woolloomooloo

Related to Woolloomooloo Mural Project
Installed 1982
WoolloomoolooPublic art
A mural depicts women interacting in front of a barber's shop and near corrugated metal, with varied expressions and clothing styles.

Depicts the community of women in Woolloomooloo.

Artist: Merilyn Fairskye, Michiel Dolk 

From artists to laundry workers, barbers to sex workers, Women in Woolloomooloo celebrates the lives of women residing in the neighbourhood. It includes portraits of infamous gangster Tilly Devine alongside anonymous residents around the turn of the 20th century and activists during the 1970s.

Mural diagram

Line drawing of the mural's layout, with numbered green circles marking 11 different people, structures, and objects throughout the busy environment.

Mural key

  1. Brenda Humble, artist, resident activist and compiler of the booklet Woolloomooloo, founding member of Residents of Woolloomooloo
  2. Anonymous domestic worker
  3. Police mug shot of gangster Tilly Devine, who ran several brothels and sly grog shops as well as her own razor gang. After working as a sex worker for 10 years, Tilly capitalised on a peculiar anomaly in the Offences (Amendment) Act 1908 that made it illegal for a male pimp or brothel-keeper to profit from the immoral earnings of sex workers but not for a woman to do so. She became a madam, using the money she had salted away to bankroll the biggest, best-organised, most lucrative brothel network Sydney has ever seen
  4. Anonymous seamstress c1900
  5. Dispossessed Aboriginal inhabitant of Woolloomooloo
  6. Two girls outside Woolloomooloo public school c1900
  7. Some of the women employed at Welby Laundry
  8. Anita’s was the first barbershop run by a woman in Sydney
  9. Nellie Leonard, resident activist and founding member of Woolloomooloo Resident Action Group with Roseina Ippolito
  10. Honora Wilkinson, author of Watch on the ‘Loo 1920–1980, resident activist and founding member of Residents of Woolloomooloo. At the time, she explained, “I’ve flatly refused to take what seems to be a fortune for my terrace house. I feel that my soul and memories are not for sale.”
  11. Denise, a young resident
A collage-style mural depicts women involved in activism, community work, and everyday life, holding placards, books, and papers, with a large tree branch running through the centre.
Photo: Chris Southwood / City of Sydney

Next: Woolloomooloo Mural Project home →

View all Woolloomooloo history murals

Designed and painted by local artists Michiel Dolk and Merilyn Fairskye, these 8 murals on the railway pylons in Woolloomooloo preserve and celebrate the suburb’s unique history.

Get arts and culture updates from City of Sydney News.

Sign up

Explore public art in Sydney

Building painted in fluorescent pink, black and blue geometric diamonds, with the words ‘Always was, always will be‘ is incorporated across the frontageMurals & street art
A breakdancer performs a one-handed freeze on a tiled floor, balancing with legs in the air, while two others in dark clothing stand in the background.Performances
Pedestrians in Hyde Park stop to look at a row of large photographs displayed along the side of the footpath.Exhibitions
People walking on top of the Stream artwork, embedded in the paving, the artwork is made up of pink, yellow and blue intersecting, asymmetric diamonds that light up at night. Installations
Steel sculpture rising from the ground consisting of a concertina of screens with the pattern of feathersSculptures
A stone monument at night. The monument has an ornate structure topped with a dome, with several busts and sculptures adorning its sides. It is lit from within.Monuments & memorials
Bronze cannon painted black on a red base that belonged to the H.M.S. Sirius, flagship of the First Fleet.Artefacts
closeup detail of golden cherub statue and water trickling out and urn. Bus sign, street and row houses in the background.Fountains & water features