To the northwest of Woolloomooloo is the Sydney Botanical Gardens . The old Woolloomooloo shipyard, which juts out far into the bay, is now a hotel and residential building. The eastern part of the bay is still used by the Royal Australian Navy . To the east is the residential area of Potts Point ; to the south are the districts of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross .
For a long time the place was considered a poor working-class district of Sydney, only recently the situation changed with a gentrification . The construction of the housing estate at Finger Wharf and the redevelopment of the coast have contributed significantly to the change.
The first landowner in the area, John Palmer, gave the place its name. It is unclear how Palmer came up with this name. Anthropologist JD McCarthy wrote in NSW Aboriginal Places Names in 1946 that Woolloomooloo was derived either from Wallamullah , which means place of plenty , or from Wallabahmullah , which means a young black kangaroo .
