Name: Woolloomooloo Murals Project
Location: Woolloomooloo Viaduct, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales
The Woolloomooloo Murals Project was conceived by activist artists Merilyn Fairskye and Michiel Dolk in 1979, and the murals were commissioned in 1982 by the Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group with support from the City of Sydney Council, the local community and others.
Today, of the original seventeen murals, only eight survive still attached to the pylons of the Woolloomooloo Viaduct.
As part of Council’s ongoing commitment to the conservation of the Woolloomooloo Murals Project, LSJ undertook an assessment of significance to provide a definitive Statement of Significance for the work, to formalise the understanding of the heritage values of the murals, and to better inform discussions with the artists and the local community as to the ongoing care and management of the murals.
Covering the history of Woolloomooloo from the late 1790s to the early 1980s, the murals highlight a significant period involving a community and union led battle to prevent the redevelopment of the area. Depicting buildings, people, places and events, the murals provide both a memento and a memorial to the decades long struggle undertaken by the local community to save their suburb.
Photograph: Robin Heks, Merilyn Fairskye, Michiel Dolk, and Tim Maguire, designers and painters of the Woolloomooloo Murals Project, dated 1982. Source: University of Sydney Archives
