Davidson’s Whaling Station
Vat for boiling blubber
7 April 2022 Nauti Time 032
Planning on leaving tomorrow so we were hoping to get to Eden to the whale museum today as well as grab some supplies but on the trip over in little Puss the swell was so huge and the sky’s threatening to dump on us that we turned around about 3/4 of the way there.
By the time we got close to home things had settled a bit so we decided on a visit to the Davidson Whaling station that was just around a headland from us. We landed Little Puss on the beach in a little bay that was very protected from the swell and took ourselves on a tour of what was once a major whaling station.
Original house
The original Davidson house still stands amidst great gums and some beautiful -lands including an ancient trumpet flower tree. There were still large vats down by the water that they had used to boil all the blubber from these magnificent animals. It is a sad and tragic history which only concluded some 40 years ago!
Trumpet flower tree
Something that was fascinating was the story that the aboriginal whalers had helped in training or using the local pods of killer whales firstly to come and signal the whalers that there was a pod of baleen whales off shore by slapping the water with their tails and then they would escort out the boats and help herd the baleen whales into the bay. Once the baleen whales were killed they were left in the water for the killer whales that then ate the tongue and lips leaving the rest of the whale which would rise to the surface after a few days and the carcass was then harvested for its blubber. Although horrific for these magnificent baleen whales the working relationship between man and killer whale cannot help but be admired. The waters here still look like they are stained by the blood of these whales!
Stained water
The acknowledgement of the skill and contribution of the aboriginal whalers was evident in their equal pay structure. What a shame this did not extend to our indigenous peoples in all areas.
Mob of Kangaroo keeping an eye on us
We walked along the beach and enjoyed an encounter with a mob of kangaroos and while heading home saw a juvenile pelican on the Sandy spit near the entrance to the small bay.
Pelicans juvenile is the one on the right (starboard)
