[7] After attending Reynella Public School, she completed her secondary education in Adelaide at Walford Church of England Girls Grammar.
[6] During 1966 and 1968, Woolcock lived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and worked at McGill University as the Overseas Research Fellow for the Asthma Foundation of NSW.
[6][8] She then returned to the Department of Medicine, University of Sydney as a senior research fellow of the Asthma Foundation of NSW and then Basser Research Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians[6] She was appointed as senior lecturer at the University of Sydney Department of Medicine in 1973 and became associate professor in 1976.
[6] Woolcock published over 300 journal articles and book chapters, making major contributions to the field of asthma research.
Her early work was influential, revolutionising understanding of the mechanisms and consequences of the physiology of airway obstruction of acute asthma.