His manor house has been converted into a tranquil boutique hotel and gourmet restaurant,the Seahorse Inn. His influence can be seen all along the coast and the national park is named in his honour.
We follow Boyd's trail,,driving around the curve of Twofold Bay through the dense Ben Boyd National Park and along soupy dirt roads to the abandoned Davidson Whaling Station that fronts the turquoise water at Kiah Inlet. The strong smell of ocean salt and eucalyptus is intoxicating.
We wander past sunbaking water dragons and the Davidson homestead to the water's edge. The smell wouldn't always have been so pleasant here among the trees. We pass the rusting try pots where whalers boiled hunks of blubber and captured the oil,used for perfume and margarine,skin cream and bike seats.
Whales were plentiful in the deep water around Eden in the 1800s. It is said to be the point where the East Australian Current meets the Bass Strait current and many blue,southern right and humpback whales stop here to feed in the krill-rich water.
Whalers would stand on the headlands around Red Point watching for a migrating pod;as soon as one was spotted,the whalers set forth in their little wooden boats with oars to harpoon beasts up to 30 metres long. The odds weren't quite as lopsided as they seem,for the whalers had a secret weapon named Old Tom.
Old Tom was a killer whale with a bond to the whalers of Eden. He was likened to a sheep dog that would round up prey for his masters. When Tom and his pod of orcas spotted a baleen whale,they would corner the animal and splash about to alert the whalers. Once the harpoon met its mark,Old Tom would often grab the rope between his teeth to speed up the return trip into Kiah Inlet. As a reward,the orcas would receive the tongue and lips of the whale. The relationship continued for nearly 60 years until Tom's death in 1930.
Old Tom's skeleton is displayed in the museum,where the grooves can be seen in his teeth,carved when he grabbed the harpoon rope and dragged the whalers back to shore.
The museum holds stories of shipwrecks - such as the Ly-ee-Moon that wrecked off Eden's coast,killing Mary MacKillop's mother in 1886 - and the Aboriginal history of the Katungal people,who thrived on this rugged coastline for thousands of years. The museum also touches on the latest attraction of Eden:whale watching. Australia signed the anti-whaling treaty in 1947 prohibiting the hunting of all whales and now the tourist operators of Eden thrive on a much more sustainable whaling activity.
Next morning we head out early from Eden's harbour into Twofold Bay on the vessel Cat Balou. Ros Butt and her husband,Gordon,have been running whale-watching tours since 1986 and she says it's not unusual to see 40 or 50 southern right and humpback whales a day in September and October. They run tours year-round,and we cruise past seals sleeping on the rocks and schools of fish boiling to the surface near the mussel farms around Snug Cove.
The tall ship Young Endeavour is doing manoeuvres and,as it unfurls its sails in the stiff breeze and heads out of the bay,it reminds me of the seafaring history of Eden and the period to the days when George Bass sailed into Twofold Bay in 1798.
We cruise past Boyd's Tower on Red Point,which now looks like a mediaeval ruin,and head back into Eden for lunch. I buy a newspaper full of fresh flathead and chips and drive up to the fisherman's memorial for a picnic on the headland.
As I get out of the car I feel a twinge of pain in my back. I wonder if the whale remedy pursued by Mrs Stubbs from Towamba might have fixed it once upon a time. Fish'n'chips and a Panadol will work just as well now.
Ben Stubbs travelled courtesy of Sapphire Coast Tourism.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Eden is 494 kilometres or a 6-hour drive south of Sydney along the Princes Highway. The closest airport is Merimbula,25 kilometres north of Eden;Rex Airlines has daily flights from Sydney.
Visiting there
The Killer Whale Museum in Eden is open Mon-Sat,9.15am-3.45pm and Sun,11.15am-3.45pm. Entry $7.50 adults,$2 children;see www.killerwhalemuseum.com.au.
Cat Balou runs Twofold Bay excursions all year and whale-watching September-late November;see catbalou.com.au.
For more information see sapphirecoast.com.au.
Staying there
Snug Cove B&B has rooms with balconies overlooking Twofold Bay from $160 including breakfast;see snugcove.com.au.
The Seahorse Inn in Boydtown has 10 luxury rooms from $175 looking out to a private beach;a cocktail bar;and restaurant. Private excursions of the region can be arranged from the inn;see seahorseinn.com.au.