Jumping in the Deep End: Swimming Champion Vicki Murphy

As the water glided over her body at the 1958 National Swimming Championships, Resthaven Port Elliot resident, Vicki Murphy knew she had hit her stride, or stroke as it were.

‘It’s a lovely feeling when it all goes right,’ Vicki says. ‘You can feel the water sliding past your body and everything else just fades away.’

Swimming under her maiden name, Page, Vicki won two bronze medals at the event. One for the 220-yard breaststroke and the other for her part in the 440-yard medley relay team.  She was 14 years old.

‘The year before I had travelled to Tasmania for my first nationals,’ Vicki says. ‘I went with my mother, who was the Team Manager, at the time. Dawn Fraser, Australian Freestyle Champion swimmer, and I stayed in the same room and we became friends as well as swimming teammates. She always said the only thing she couldn’t beat me at was breaststroke.’

Jumping the fence

Growing up in the South Australian suburb of Henley Beach, Vicki and her family lived a couple of streets back from the beach.

‘As a kid, I loved swimming,’ Vicki says. ‘My brother, Tony, was very involved with the Henley Surf Lifesaving Club up to state level and my mum let me go down to the beach with him. When I was about nine years old, I came home with a certificate for the 25-yard freestyle. She asked me where it had come from and I had to confess that I had been jumping the fence and joining in the swimming lessons at the Henley Beach open air saltwater swimming pool (where water was pumped in from the ocean). There was really nothing else for it, she enrolled me properly and I started training there legitimately.’

 
Vicki Murphy on the starters block

Vicki was competing in more and more events, trying out different strokes and building her abilities. She started working with a coach, Harry Gallagher, and it wasn’t long before she was training six or seven days a week. Slowly she began to specialise in breaststroke.

‘We always swam in cold water,’ Vicki says. ‘Whether at Henley Beach or the City Baths. I remember at the City Baths, a couple of the boys would often misbehave and their punishment was to scrub the sides of the Henley pool to get it clean before the summer opening.’

Vicki also remembers the canteen at the City Baths that was operated by the Red Cross.

‘We used to buy Bush Biscuits from there,’ Vicki says. ‘If we were lucky, they might have butter spread on them, but either way, they were always good for filling up after a big swim.’

By the time Vicki was 14 years old, she travelled to Townsville to train with the ‘Golden Dolphins’ for 3 months. This team was training and preparing for the next Olympics, Rome 1960.

‘It took us 8 hours to fly to Townsville,’ Vicki says.  ‘There were 6-8 of us all staying in the one house. There was no washing machine, so we all had to wash our clothes in the bath. We would walk up and down on our clothes and then rinse!’

Vicki continued to swim well, winning a bronze medal for the 440-yard individual medley swim, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

‘A different breaststroke swimmer was chosen for the team,’ Vicki says. ‘I had the discipline, but I lacked the killer instinct.’

Vicki’s family were all involved with swimming in one way or another.

 
Vicki Murphy in pool

‘My mum, whilst working full time, became the first female registrar of swimming in South Australia as well as Team Manager for the SA state teams. She is a life member of Swimming SA,’ Vicki says. 

Later life

Vicki met her husband to be, Fred, on Anzac Day at the Norwood Town Hall. During their courtship, Fred was going to plumbing trade school whilst Vicki was doing a cooking class. Vicki said, ‘we used to finish at the same time and Fred would drive me home.’

The couple were married in 1965 and a few years later, Vicki fell pregnant.

‘We went to the doctor and during the check-up he said something doesn’t look quite right. He arranged an x-ray and sure enough, we were pregnant with twins,’ Vicki says.

A girl and a boy, Andrea and Jason were born in 1968. As the children grew up, Vicki continued to work in the swimming industry, teaching swimming, to children, adults and those with a disability. Her daughter Andrea also worked with her from the age of around 14.

‘Mum was an amazing contributor to the public and private swimming industry in South Australia over many years,’ Andrea says. ‘It was beautiful to watch her swim.’

‘Her passion for the water came about not only because she loved swimming herself, but she wanted to instil in every person the skill of swimming. She was way ahead of her time, and she was a force to be reckoned with, particularly when it came to equal rights and opportunity within the industry.’

Vicki continued to swim in Australian Masters Games, and on a daily basis, she could be found swimming across Horseshoe Bay at Pt Elliot.

Sadly, in August 2006, Vicki suffered a stroke. Some seven months later, in March 2007 she was well enough to leave hospital.

‘I’ve lost the use of one arm and leg, but at home I could use my quad walking stick to get around the veranda three times. I was doing okay.’

In 2018 Vicki moved into Resthaven Port Elliot, knowing that she would benefit from the care, as well as the social interactions. Fred, now aged 85, visits her every day, apart from when he’s on the golf course.

And speaking of visitors, a little while ago, Vicki had a special guest at Resthaven. 

‘Dawn was in South Australia for the Australian Swimming titles and she and another swimming teammate, gold medallist Margaret Gibson, who won a gold medal in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, came to see me,’ Vicki says. ‘I probably should have told some other people she was coming. There were a few people afterward who came up to me and said, ‘she looked familiar!’

Thanks for sharing your story, Vicki! We hope you enjoy watching the swimming for the upcoming Olympics in Paris.

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