Eden Home of the Prettiest Cemetary

Welcome to Eden where the prime real estate is occupied by a cemetary!

Eden is a small fishing town on the south eastern tip of Australia midway between Sydney and Melbourne, it has yet to acquire the look and feel of a tourist town. It almost seems lost in time with open beaches unoccupied by houses, beautiful cliffs right in the town center with wooden walkways along their precipice. We stayed the night here on January 10th 2006 and still wonder why it was named 'Eden' - as beautiful as the town is that seems a bit of a stretch.

The main attraction is the cemetary itself . It's a lonely place that overlooks the ocean, its loneliness amplified by the overcast skies. Many of the graves bear only a bronze plaque 'unknown' the original inscriptions worn by the salt laden wind and time.

The other thing of note, besides the quaintness of the town, is the Killer Whale Museum. It was in Eden that a most unusual partnership developed between man and killer whale. Tom, the leader of a pack of killer whales, learned to herd larger blue, sperm, and beluga whales into the bay so that the fishermen could row out to sea and kill them. Tom would actually swim into the bay to signal the fishermen that they were about to lure a whale into the bay so that they could prepare their boats. Once the whale was slayed, the pack of killer whales would feast on the lips and tongue, then head back out to sea. This unusual partnership lasted for over a decade until Tom died. His skeleton is the focal point of the museum.