The fourth-generation resident has ''never been crook'', despite warnings about fishing in Sydney Harbour. ''You just cut them behind the spine, take their head off and skin them, and bring them home. Mum used to cook them up ... sensational,'' he says.

Mr Flood, 64, is among scores of residents who have vowed to fight their relocation as part of the government’s public housing sell-off.

After a lifetime of living and working on the harbour, and drawing the occasional meal from it, he has become ''part of the furniture'' at Millers Point.

He fears for the welfare of his elderly neighbours, despite government assurances that they will be supported in their move.

''Moving people out of here ... it’s going to affect me for sure. People who are 90 and 80, I think it’s just their death sentence,'' Mr Flood said.

''We always thought ... we’d be here till we died like our family. We were always taught ... to look after the place and look after the people who were here, and that’s what we’ve done.''