The Whiter family is one whose name is intertwined with the history of the development of Eden.
Last week, Allan Whiter was recognised by the Master Builders Association for 45 years as a member of the Association.
Lynn Smith, the South Coast Representative for the Master Builders Association of NSW was honoured to present a Certificate of Appreciation to Allan Whiter and his sons, Ian Peter and Rob at a special ceremony in Merimbula last week.
"Allan has been a member of the Association for 45 years and this is a great way to thank and show our appreciation to Allan for supporting us for so many years," Ms Smith said.
This 45 years represents a large part of the 67 years that Allan has been plying his trade in the area.
A look through the Whiter family history shows that building is obviously something that runs in the blood, a tradition continued today by Allan's sons Robert, Allan and Peter.
With the development of Boydtown currently an issue of some consternation, their family history takes on particular relevance, as well as being a glowing tribute to a family patriarch with vision matched by determination and resilience.
The building prowess of the Whiter family has had an indelible impact on the area, since Richard Bromby Whiter moved here with his children, Nancy, Ena, Arthur and Allan, and Ena's husband Joe Terrill in Easter of 1936.
At the age of 51 Richard had plenty of achievements behind him and many more prospects before him, as are documented in the following family history penned by Richard's son, Allan, well known to Eden locals, as are all the Whiter family.
"Along with my mother and we family of six, he arrived in Lakes Entrance in early 1927 to recuperate from his loss in a disastrous town fire in Stanhope, Victoria, in which he lost all personal belongings, the third time he had been burnt out in his short life of 42 years."
"He pitched a tent on private property directly opposite what was to become Whiter's Park. It didn't take long for him to form the opinion that this tiny hamlet, named Lakes Entrance and inhabited mainly by fishermen, with their small launches and net boats, would one day become popular with holiday makers. On making enquiries with Tambo Shire Council, he was offered a parcel of land in Roadnight St, on the then Princes Highway, if he was prepared to pay the outstanding rate arrears on it."
What follows is a story of entrepreneurial vision and pure hard work, with Richard and the family clearing the bush block and transforming it into the first caravan/tourist park in the area, in a time when such developments were untried and untested.
By 1933, Richard's bush paddock was host to 1600 people in 365 cars and the little hamlet of Lakes Entrance was reaping the benefits associated with a huge influx of tourists.
Richard and his two boys Allan and Arthur first laid eyes on Twofold Bay in 1934, during a tour of the area following the death of Richard's wife Annie.
A chance call into the ruins of the Seahorse Inn fired his imagination for another Whiter's Park, and two years later the family arrived at Boydtown to begin the huge task of rebuilding the decrepit remains, which they had purchased for 1,250 pounds, including 640 acres and the ruined old Church.
"The initial convoy comprised his Essex super six pulling a heavy laden trailer, two large tabletop trucks loaded with building material, and three skiffs. Negotiating that unmade track in from the Princes Highway with those large trucks was indeed a marathon effort, not made any easier by the fact that one truck was driven by a paraplegic."
"The first night at Boydtown saw we family, and truck drivers, sleeping on what was left of the old timber floor, in rooms with no doors or windows and accompanied by a colony of flying bats."
For Richard, a man of considerable industry, the rebuilding work began almost immediately, priority given to restoring the rear section of the building to provide kitchen and living areas, and to construct a small earth closet.
Work continued with good progress.
"Later it was recommended he visit the wrecking yard of 'Mother Dally', a prominent saleswomen of building materials from wrecked buildings in Melbourne. From there he was able to purchase beautiful doors, some elaborately glazed, both leadlight and frosted glass, all two inches thick, leadlight bay windows, stair cases with ornate balustrade and newel posts, to provide access to the upstairs rooms. Perhaps the most treasured of all was the large entrance door unit, comprising leadlight side lights, a leadlight door hung on rising butt hinges, and a curved leadlight fan light over. This unit was originally the entrance door to the home of Sir Norman Brooks, the Australian tennis captain of the time. It was of course destined to be the proud front entrance to the revamped Seahorse Inn."
By 1939 the completed work comprised a new road from the Princes Highway, restoration of the rear portion of the Inn to provide living quarters, the construction of a brick cottage for Ena and Joe, and the building of the Walters garage in Eden, plus the re-roofing of the front section of the Inn and the restoration of the two fallen gable ends.
The first floor of the tower complex was outfitted comfortably for Richard and new companion Myrt, including an open fire place and an inglenook.
With the start of World War 2, tourism came to a sudden halt because of petrol rationing.
Allan and Arthur both became involved in the war effort, and so Richard was forced to call a halt to restoration work.
Together with son-in-law Joe and daughter Ena, Richard accepted a position offered by the RAAF to build aerodrome support buildings down on the Mallacoota aerodrome, as well as sundry works on Gabo Island.
The family regrouped after the divisions of war, and with Joe and Ena now living in Wollongong, Allan, Arthur, with some help from Richard completed the re-build.
The total restoration, including the building of the brick cottage, consumed 110 tons of cement, 40 cubic yards of creek gravel, bucketed up from a creek bed, and hundreds of cubic yards of sand.
The entire rebuild, which took a total of 12 years, was carried out without the luxury of electric or motorised power.
Many buildings in the district fell victim to the bushfires of January 1952, including a cafe built by the Whiters at the Boydtown turnoff.
Fortunately the Seahorse Inn and adjacent buildings escaped the inferno and became the refuge for many residents in the neighbourhood.
Richard organised and ran a well attended benefit day on the beach to raise money for those who lost so much in the fires.
By 1955 however, his aspirations to develop another Whiter's park were found impossible to realise, and the decision was made to put the property on the market.
Allan and Arthur, with their wives and family, moved into Eden to set up a building business from a workshop on their land in Cocora Street
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