In 1897, as an undergraduate, he accompanied Edgeworth David's expedition to Funafuti Atoll, where Charles Darwin's theory of the formation of coral reefs was tested.

[5] In 1932 Woolnough recognised the dome-like structure of Rough Range, Exmouth Gulf, scene of an oil discovery in 1953.

A graduate of Sydney University, Woolnough accompanied Edgeworth David to Funafuti Atoll in 1897, and worked in Fiji in 1901 and 1905, recognising the essentially "continental" character of these islands.

Woolnough then joined Brunner Mond Alkali company to seek economic salt deposits in Australia.

He travelled widely, and despite the physical disabilities that barred him from a place on Scott's polar expedition in 1910, and from war service, he covered vast distances (1 000 miles on foot in seven weeks) in his work.