Frank Hyde was born in in 1916 and grew up in Millers Point. He went on to become a famous rugby league footballer and radio and television commentator. In his interview he talks about aspect of life in the local community, his family, education, the Depression, hotels, and his career.
In the excerpt below he recalls one of the hazards of an adventurous childhood spent around the Sydney wharves.
This interview is part of Housing NSW’s 2005 Millers Point Oral History Project. The City of Sydney acknowledges the State Library of New South Wales as the archival custodian of the project and digital preserver of the masters.
We were all over the wharves, underneath the wharves with punts and boats, fishing and all that sort of thing. There would be ocean-going steamers come in at Dalgety’s Wharf and on the other side was a wharf where people would walk down and get on a launch to be used in the waterways. Well we used to dive off there and swim across and turn on the side of an ocean-going steamer.
We got out of the water one day, and we were drying ourselves and putting our clothes on, a shark surfaced that would have taken us in one gulp. That was the last time that I performed down there. When it was all said done we were all products of the Depression, you had to make your own fun.
