redfern is named after william redfern, a naval surgeon who was shipped over as a convict. but after two years was pardoned and put in charge of the hospital around there.

redfern, currently, is one of the less well through of places on sydney's landscape, especially so close to the centre of the city. brenda croft, in her essay 'cultural sign posts: whose heritage', details some of the changes that is coming to a suburb that is still thought of as primarily a place where aborigines live, and which respectable folks can't drive through, for fear of car jacking or any other such thing.