Mural 8: Women in Woolloomooloo

Installed 1982

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.

2026 Biennale of Sydney

Merilyn Fairskye & Michiel Dolk, the artists behind the Woolloomooloo Mural Project, were commissioned by the 2026 Biennale of Sydney to produce a new video mural titled Person to Person.

This video mural is a contemporary portrait of Woolloomooloo that references its history of real estate, housing and homelessness. It serves as a dialogue between the existing murals under the eastern suburbs railway viaduct, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and 2 bus shelters the City of Sydney owns on Bourke Street next to Tom Uren Place.

QMS supports this initiative by displaying portraits of local community members.

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

Brenda Humble, artist, resident activist and compiler of the booklet Woolloomooloo, founding member of Residents of Woolloomooloo
Anonymous domestic worker
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
Anonymous seamstress c1900
Dispossessed Aboriginal inhabitant of Woolloomooloo
Two girls outside Woolloomooloo public school c1900
Some of the women employed at Welby Laundry
Anita’s was the first barbershop run by a woman in Sydney
Nellie Leonard, resident activist and founding member of Woolloomooloo Resident Action Group with Roseina Ippolito
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.”
Denise, a young resident

Most women in Woolloomooloo found employment in the service industries surrounding the city centre. This included habitual occupations such as seamstresses, laundresses and in small firms such as the Welby Laundry.

With a reputation as a tough neighbourhood, well-known for sex work, Woolloomooloo was the home turf of Tilly Devine, who commanded one of 2 razor gangs run by women in Sydney. The other gang was based in Surry Hills, headed by Kate Leigh. Contested turf included Kings Cross, which was the site of several notorious street battles.

Despite many pubs and brothels in the area, Woolloomooloo hosted Sydney’s first day nursery for children of working mothers. It was established in a small terrace house at 126 Dowling Street in 1905.

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.