Eden is transitioning from predominantly being a fishing, whaling and timber town to becoming a tourism destination that not only offers a beautiful coastal setting but most importantly offers a unique historic cultural heritage as its tourism lure.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This cultural heritage is made up of the Aboriginal history, the whaling, the fishing and timber industries that have made Eden Eden.
Eden has a history like no other town and this is the valuable point of difference it has compared to other dime a dozen coast towns.
It is important that as much of this history is preserved to be able to hold and secure this cultural uniqueness for the future of tourism.
An integral part of this heritage is the Australasia Hotel building that is 110 years old, built at a time when Eden was being mooted as a potential capital port.
It was built to support seafarers moving between Sydney and Melbourne.
This hotel has so much nautical, fishing, whaling and timber cutting history it is unprecedented.
In the 1950’s it was considered by its then owner too old world looking and needed to be modernised, so the beautiful old wrought iron balustrading and open veranda and original facade was boxed over and covered with a typical boxy 1950 look that has remained to this day.
It was sold a couple of years ago to the current owner as a non operating hotel.
It was discovered after the purchase that the original facade was still intact behind the modern one.
The owner put a Development Application in to Council proposing to demolish the building and build a new supermarket on the site.
Council was lobbied by a group of concerned citizens and told of the historic value and the fact the original facade was still there and quite restorable.
Unfortunately the building had not been heritage listed because until then little was known about the original facade.
The Council to its credit did reject the proposal to demolish and suggested a desire to see the facade restored as part of any development, the Council also offered to consider waivering any carparking contribution that would be required to be paid by the developer.
The developer challenged Councils decision to reject his proposal and Council after seeking some advice felt they were up against it because the building was not heritage listed, so they chose to approve the demolition of the building subject to some special conditions to protect certain heritage valued items.
The developer being aware of community angst towards the loss of the iconic building made an offer to the community group who were working very hard to save the building, for them or anyone to purchase the front 15 metres of the building which is the original heritage valued portion, he gave the community group a period of 2 weeks to come up with the money $500k to buy it.
This proved to be impossible for the group to come up with in such a short time.
The group approached the Council to fund it using the carparking contribution money, being approx $480k, that would have nearly covered it but the Council said they were not able do it within the short time frame being offered.
The developer said he needed to move on, he couldn’t wait, he needed certainty, he wanted various conditions to be applied if council were willing to do it.
Regrettably the will or real desire was not there to do it on behalf of the developer and the Council, all too hard unfortunately.
After all the short time frames and the rushing around frantically trying to get a positive outcome the community group are still hopeful that even now, nearly a year later, that the developer will have second thoughts and work together with the community, the Council and the State Government to save and restore the front 15 metre portion of this wonderful icon, which could be restored and renovated for eg retail businesses and the upstairs could be used for guest house accommodation.
To lose this Icon for another supermarket will be a real detriment to Eden’s historic culture and unique tourism appeal, it will be only a myth.
- Fraser Buchanan ex BVSC Councillor and Eden High School student