Eden, Australia: Orca History and Old-Growth Forest on the Sapphire Coast

The Eden Killer Whale Museum is the reason most people come to Eden, and it earns the visit. The star exhibit is the skeleton of Old Tom — a male orca who lived in Twofold Bay from the 1840s until his death in 1930 and who, along with a small pod, established a recognized cooperative hunting relationship with the Davidson family whaling operation. Old Tom would herd baleen whales into the bay, alert whalers by slapping the water, and in exchange receive the whale's lips and tongue after the kill. The arrangement lasted for decades and is one of the most thoroughly documented examples of cooperative hunting between humans and wild cetaceans. Tom's skeleton, complete with a worn groove in his jaw from grabbing tow lines, is on display. The museum also covers the broader history of Australian coastal whaling.

Ben Boyd National Park flanks both sides of Twofold Bay. On the southern shore, Boyd's Tower — a sandstone lighthouse tower begun but never completed by the merchant adventurer Benjamin Boyd in the 1840s — stands at the edge of a cliff above the sea. The walk from Saltwater Creek to the tower and the adjacent redpoint cliffs follows coastal heath with views over the bay. Red ochre cliffs, she-oak trees, and occasional pods of dolphins in the bay below make this a genuinely scenic coastal walk.

Whale watching operates from Eden between October and December as humpback and southern right whales migrate south after calving. The bay's geography concentrates the whales close to shore; sightings from the headlands without a boat are common in peak season. Boat tours run when conditions allow.

The drive from Eden to Merimbula, 30 km north, passes Pambula Lake and several beaches typical of the Sapphire Coast. The coastal scenery here — white beaches, shallow estuaries, forested headlands — is low-key and undervisited compared to the more famous stretches further north.

Eden is a working fishing port as well as a cruise destination. The commercial fishing fleet still operates; fresh fish is available at the co-op on the waterfront at a price and quality that reflects the source.