Bay Watch - they were both pretty unhappy with the trade

Bass and Flinders Discover Eden Twofold Bay Snug Cove

Mathew Flinders, the intrepid explorer, had landed at the sheltered Twofold Bay on the far south coast of the colony of New South Wales and, encountering a band of Aborigines from the Thawa tribe, had given them some biscuits. The Aboriginals reciprocated handing over a local delicacy – the dried blubber of a whale. It would have been rude to refuse, so Flinders was looking around for somewhere to discreetly spit out his mouthful of bush tucker when he noticed the aborigines equally revolted by British Navy hard tack, doing the same.

And so began white history of whales in the Eden area, a tiny town that as much as anywhere on Australia’s south eastern coastline, from Warrnambool to Maryborough can claim the whale as its local icon. Any time from June, when they begin their long migration from the icy waters of the Southern Ocean to the balmy tides of the Barrier Reef to calve, until November when they return you may encounter a mighty humpback or a rarer right or minke whale taking a break in the bay. There are few better places from which to spy on them than the Crown and Anchor Inn, an historic coaching inn perched on top of the bluff that forms the cleavage where the bay thrusts its bosom into the land. I arrive here from Melbourne late on a cool afternoon, having first got slightly lost.

Eden is a good place to take a break if you’re taking the scenic intercity route as it’s close to halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. The building is a carefully restored old inn, built in the early 1840s when Eden was first established, and made of stone and handmade brick stuck together with a mortar of cow dung and termite mounds. The building is all mullioned windows, bare polished boards, antique sofas, a piano, and all manner of nautical knick-knacks including an antique barometer. I am shown to my window room overlooking the bay, which is the largest and best fitted-out of the rooms. It is furnished in period fashion with a four-poster bed that you almost need a step ladder to climb into, and a tiled ensuite bathroom. And a radiator. Eden can be bleak, cold and windy in winter. At the back, concealed from the street behind the old inn, is a new two-storey extension which houses the owners living quarters.

The whales, alas, aren’t around when I visit so I opt instead to dine alone before a crackling log fire in the drawing room. Tired, I crash early. It’s not until the next day I realise that, even without the whales, Eden is not just a convenient stopover; it’s a destination in its own right, with some of the most stunning scenery and intriguing history, in the state. First stop should be the Whale Museum which displays the mammoth skeleton of a killer whale called Tom. The story (supported by a contemporary newspaper report) is that Tom was one of a gang of killer whales which used to help local whalers by herding their unfortunate colleagues into the bay to be harpooned to death. Their reward was the tongue and lips, while the whalers (including some of the Aborigines) got the blubber.

Further afield is the Ben Boyd National Park. The whole area is surrounded by newly extended national parks and reserves. Ben Boyd is an interesting character, one of the colony’s pioneering entrepreneurs. Boyd was a London stockbroker who raised a million pounds from British investors. He spent the money establishing a paddle-steamer service between Sydney and Hobart, buying up more than a million hectares of land, discovering gold, and planning a port city with which to exploit all this. Alas, the ship hit a rock, the gold ran out, the landholdings were liquidated, the liquidators were called in and all that remains today of Boydtown (of course) is the newly constructed Sea Horse Inn and some ruins.

That’s all I really have time for. I haven’t brought my fishing tackle with me (there’s a $20 000 competition in March, and Lake Wonboyn is said to be one of the best fishing spots in the State, or my Scarpa boots (there are some beautiful walks through coastal forest and scrubland). I sip fresh orange juice for breakfast, look out over the blue and white fishing boats bobbing in the bay, and resolve to return to this other Eden for a few days during the whale season.