Parks are one of the key indicators of a healthy community. In Bourke Street Woolloomooloo is a generous pocket park by award-winning architects which contains and outdoor gym, plenty of green space, and outdoor library, public toilets and community gardens. All under the rhythmic hum of the eastern suburbs railway overpass.

The site has links to early indigenous settlements. According to one account the name Woolloomooloo was known as Walla Mulla by Ricketty Dick and other aborigines who once lived and roamed through the area.

Ricketty Dick, also known as Warrah Warrah, lived in Sydney in the 19th century.
He was associated with other campsites in Sydney’s Domain and Rose Bay. He was given the name Ricketty Dick because had a form of Rickets, which paralysed the legs which affected his walking ability. He was born in Sydney about 1795.
As an Elder he was sometimes described as the “King of Woolloomooloo Tribe” and “Chief of the Rose Bay tribe.”

His mother was from Botany Bay and his father from Five Islands near Wollongong. He spent his final days around Rose Bay and died in 1863.
The park is a gentle reminder of the longevity of our Indigenous past and lost links with the oldest continuous civilisation on earth.

By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions