Bertha Blackman

Interviewed by Eve Klein on 15 July 2002
Subject: Balmoral

Eve Klein. Where did they go fishing?

Bertha Blackman. Down at Balmoral where the Peggy’s Rocks are .. well the Peggy’s Rocks had big slits in them, so you dropped a piece of meat down on string, you had your net ready, and that’s how you caught the lobsters, because we could get lobsters then. We could get anything; I can tell you, all the fish, the naniguys and the bream, the Taylor etc.

Eve Klein. Were you able to eat it during the week?

Bertha Blackman. They were always catching fish and they’d bring it home, and they even caught blue crabs off the wharf with a bit of meat on a piece of string.

We had to pay tuppence to go to the baths – one side near the wharf was for the ladies and the other side was for the men, and you couldn’t swim in the men’s one until the bell rang after lunch, and then the ladies could go in with the men, but you weren’t allowed to go in with the men until then because they only had black v’s on here. (laughs)