Davidson Whaling Station
In 1857 Alexander Walker Davidson built a whaling station on the shores of Kiah Inlet to the south of Eden using timber from the wrecked ship 'Laurence Frost' which had been run ashore and abandoned nearby.
With equipment purchased from Benjamin Boyd's earlier whaling business, he thus established the most notable of the shore-based whaling enterprises of Twofold Bay, with 4 generations of his family continuing whaling into the late 1920's, before the last of the pod of Killer Whales ('Old Tom') who had assisted them died.
His son, John, later leased all the land along the coast to Red Point and began using Boyd's Tower as their whale spotting lookout.
The boat crews at Kiah Inlet where alerted by a gun shot from the tower, but more often than not one of the pod of Killer Whales would have already done so be entering the inlet and thrashing its tail to attract their attention.
Although up to 30 whaling boats were launched from the area in its hey-day, the Davidson's were the only ones so alerted by the Killer Whales.
This may have been because a large proportion of the Davidson's crews were Aboriginal and the local Thawa tribe had had a long established co-operative relationship with the Orcas, whom they called "Beowas" and revered as reincarnated warriors reborn to the sea from the dreamtime.
Among the many interesting anecdotes from that time is the occasion when the grandson of Alexander Davidson (George, ‘Master Whaler’) and his Thawa crew where rowing out to tow home a dead whale (after lancing they were left until they refloated from natural gas production) and watched as one of their pod of Killer Whales, ‘Jackson’, chased a Risso’s Dolphin (or ‘fat fish’) at such speed that both became stranded in shallows at the end of Aslings Beach.
They immediately changed course and the crew pulled heartily in order to help their beloved ‘spirit brother’ only to see a man wading out from the beach presumably also to help.
This man was a newcomer to the area and thought that the whaleboat was hunting the stranded animals and so he claimed the ‘kill’ for himself by lancing both helpless animals with a large knife.
The crew were livid and the harpooner even futilely threw his weapon toward the man.
Fearing their reprisals, George wisely steered the boat out into the harbour.
Feeling built among whalers of all races over this senseless slaughter to the extent that the local constable ‘had a quiet word’ and the man hastily left that night, never to return.
Whale oil was a major source of illumination, lubrication and soap manufacture through the 19th century before the development of petroleum and helped drive the industrial revolution.
It was only replaced very recently in many critical engineering applications.
From the baleen with which whales filter krill (small crustaceans which are their main food source) the corsetry popular up until World War II was manufactured.
A host of artifacts, equiment and information about Eden's whaling days can be seen at the Eden Killer Whale Museum , including the skeleton of 'Old Tom' whose body was recovered by George Davidson.
The Davidson Whaling Station site is now administered by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.