John Willis: Hi, I'm John Willis, and I'm here for Club Marine TV in beautiful Eden.
What a wonderful place, one of my favourite places on Earth.
You've got the rolling mountains coming down to the steep cliffs, and the beautiful golden
sands of the ocean.
We're obviously here for a trailer trip with a trailer boat.
We've got a beautiful boat.
We've got a beautiful car, coming to a lovely destination, having some fun on the water.
But you know what?
It's not only about what we can do on the water.
It's also about what we can do on the land, and what you might want to do with the family
while you're here, as well.
John Willis: I'm sitting down here on the beautiful beach, outside the cabins where
we're staying, at the Eden Beachfront Holiday Park with Jason Ferguson.
How are you mate?
Jason Ferguson: Good, mate.
Good.
John Willis: What a wonderful place you've got here.
Jason Ferguson: It is.
It is a wonderful place.
John Willis: It's all there.
We've got the creek, we've got the beachfront, and for the kids, we've also got the playground,
even for the big kids.
I've had a jump on the jumping pad, myself.
Jason Ferguson: Yeah, I've seen that.
John Willis: How good are the facilities here at Eden?
We're down at the boat ramp in the little boat harbor.
It's fully enclosed by a break wall, with direct access into Twofold Bay and straight
out to sea, so you can actually fish offshore, even in a little boat.
You've got a good concrete, four-lane boat ramp, you've got untold cleaning facilities,
with wash downs, plus a floating pontoon to load from as well, and all of that with terrific
parking facilities.
Eden, you know how to look after boaters.
John Willis: This really is a watery wonderland up here, for the fisherman and the divers.
We've just got a little bit of everything for everybody.
You've got all that reef dropping area, so even in a small boat, like a 5.4 meter, I
call this a fairly small boat, trailerable boat, you can get to the small estuaries,
you can get the to bay, or you can go wide to the shelf if you want to, on a good day.
And that gives you so much potential.
Doesn't matter what the weather's like, you can get out there.
John Willis: In the estuaries, you've got your bream, estuary perch, flathead, all those
usual species.
Come into these coastal reefs, we're looking at squid potential, your drummer blackfish,
all that sort of stuff as well.
But, then we get into the more exciting stuff.
Mulloway on the beaches are great, and also on the beaches is your salmon and tailor as
well, so the surf fishing's here as well.
John Willis: But, for me, the offshore potential is really where it's at.
Don't forget those kingfish, they're just sensational.
Come the season, we've got stripy tuna, we've got albacore, we've got ... Yellowfin really
kick off in about November.
Go through till about March, April, but then we've also got the big bluefin taking off
as well, there's been some great bluefin catches in recent years.
John Willis: But, then we've got Mr. Sticknose, the marlin and, mate, who doesn't love a marlin?
You don't have to go to the shelf.
At the right time of year, get in through that January through to March, April-type
period, and you're going to get that marlin potential, it's just great.
John Willis: So, you've got everything in one place.
Great facilities, beautiful beaches.
Who could ask for more?
I could.
I could do with a squid.
Lana: Hi, my name's Lana, and this is my husband Brad.
We're the new owners of the Cat Balou Cruises, here in Eden.
We're busy with our whale watching at the moment.
We've had 100 percent success rate with our whale watching for the last couple of years,
and this year's looking like a bumper season, with over 30 thousand whales set to migrate
down the East Coast.
Lana: We also offer bay cruises here, around the bay, where we have a live commentary on
board, and we point out some of the historical areas of interest, and we also do twilight
cruises through parts of the year as well.
Lana: You can book online on www.catbalou.com.au.
John Willis: Such a rich part of the history of Eden is the history of whaling, and Eden
would probably have one of the best stories I've ever heard.
This is the story of Old Tom, the orca, the killer whale, and his mates.
He used to go out and round up the humpbacks and all the rest of the target whales.
When they came into Twofold Bay, he'd round them up.
The rest of the pack would keep them all tight.
Old Tom would go down and flap around in the shallows, down near the Davidson Whaling Station,
and alert the whalers that he'd basically corralled the target species for them, and
he'd actually ... was renowned to have actually even, at some stage, towed the whaling boats
out while the whalers harpooned the whale.
This was an amazing man-beast relationship that went on for many, many years, I believe
a couple of generations.
John Willis: Down at the beautiful Kiah Inlet, and the Davidson Whaling Station.
This is the remnants of the old whaling station.
This is one of the old pots they used to boil the blubber up into to get the whale oil out,
which, of course, was a hugely precious commodity back then.
But it's a beautiful little spot, lovely little beach.
But a beach that was covered by death and corruption for all too many years, and it
wasn't that long ago that all that stopped.
John Willis: The cafes and restaurants in Eden are all excellent, but you've got to
get down to Snug Cove and go upstairs to the Drift restaurant, where if the food doesn't
get you, the view over the harbour will.
John Willis: You know, if you're anything like me, you're just going to love coming
to Eden.
It really has got everything.
I mean, it's got everything as far as boating's concerned, but it's got a whole heap more,
as well.
It's about halfway between Melbourne and Sydney in real terms, and when you get here, it's
not only the coast that you've got, you've got this wonderful development here.
The township's got everything you possibly need.
Supermarkets, pubs, cafes, bakeries.
It's all there.
Check this.
The tackle shop.
I promise I won't buy anything.
John Willis: Well, who can resist a good tackle shop?
It's really got the lot.
Come to Eden.
See ya.