There was a time when one could pick oysters off the rocks in Quarantine Bay, when it was standing room only for anglers on the wharf, filling their drums with a variety of great eating fish, and the lights of the bait boats flooded the night.
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A time when Imlay street buzzed, the Fishermen's Club was a very popular venue and the camping grounds were packed.
Today, the Australasia pub is a shell, the old time bakery is gone and retail trade is reeling.
The car park of the Fishermen's Club is vacant, the Motels are for sale and the trawlers are rusting.
Chris Wilson is running out of places to post his 'For Sale' signs and the Catholic primary school has closed.
Strangely, Eden is still a most beautiful place to visit, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, whoever built the new cenotaph and those who lobbied for and built the boardwalks and those who tend the pretty garden on the winding path from the museum to the wharf, and those who maintain the most attractive village, historic cemetery, and those who are doing everything to promote local artists, all are to be celebrated for the faith they show.
The playing fields down at Aslings offer many choices for the hyper active amongst you and the stunning natural beauty of the place rivets the attention.
Do locals still embrace the glorious pelicans, the swamp fowl, the darting swallows and the majestic black cockies when they cruise past?
I am sure they do.
Even the tired fishing pros who were cleaning their killing gear and untangling miles of twisted nylon on Wednesday morning last, couldlook up and laugh at a huge pelican perched on top of a light pole on the wharf.
One young man pulled his beanie tight in fear for what might happen!
Secondly, Eden has resisted every attempt to allow the kind of development that has turned Merimbula into the Gold Coast on the South Coast.
We walk alone on the beaches, get great attention from the lady and her staff at the 'Wharfside Cafe' and can always be stirred by the beauty of the vision of evening, on the wharf, looking out over Twofold Bay, watching a couple of porpoise cruise by.
This diehard conservative refusal to change could be a major asset when one thinks about the kind of rebirth that Eden might embrace.
You see, there are not enough of 'me' who love the place as it is, visit infrequently and don't spend too much.
Like it or lump it, your town needs more of 'me'.
I can sense a dying city when I see one.
You see, I come from Dandenong.
The music in our city died when manufacturing stopped being the major generator of wealth. GMH, Heinz, International Harvester disappeared and unemployment came to be chronic.
We seem to puddle along being ignored by the wider world so I do not have a great tale to tell about the rebirth of our city.
That is very much a work in progress.
When I see all the obvious signs of a town that is screaming for reinvention, it is not the first time.
I would not be so bold as to suggest a formula that would allow you to attract worthwhile attention from the world.
I am game enough, however, to say that whatever you people do to help your absolutely uniquely beautiful place better for yourselves, that you do it without spoiling the uniqueness of Eden.
There has to be a basket of benign, activities that lie undiscovered in your midst; activities that are commercial but not toxic, that come from the resources that surround you that are indifferent to seasonal changes of weather; activities that can be enjoyed by the full breadth of the demographic.
Lastly, and most importantly, there has to be political skill; skill to 'assemble', lobby, persist, gather support, project-manage and not lose integrity and credibility along the way.
My wife and I will always return for a few days at a time whether you do something, or do nothing.
John Camillo
Dandenong, Victoria