Voices of Millers Point
The voices of Millers Point paint vivid pictures of the past. In 2005 the Department of Housing undertook a large oral history project with tenants and residents in Millers Point. Here the memories of Alice Brown and Des Gray are combined with historic photographs of Millers Point.
The collection of interviews with a priest, shopkeeper, waterside workers, a former Builders Labourers Federation unionist, the children of a publican and others, reveal fascinating and colourful stories about the Millers Point community over the past 100 years. The original recordings were produced by oral historian Frank Heimans, who said the interviewees had a strong sense of allegiance and belonging to the heritage-listed area. “The residents have a rich reservoir of memories of living at Millers Point, going, in some cases, as far back as six generations,” Mr Heimans said of the project.
The City of Sydney made these interviews publicly accessible in 2015. 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.
“It altered the whole place really”
Alice Brown remembers the Harbour Bridge under construction during her childhood in Millers Point.
“Quite a lot of people got hurt that day”
Des Gray remembers billycarts in Millers Point.
