Return to Eden

By Bob Piper
Volume 48, No. 10, June 15, 2006

A Fairey IIID floatplane waits for fuel while moored off Edrom Lodge at Eden in the early 1920s.

Edrom Lodge today.

Photos courtesy Bob Piper

A PRE-WAR friendship between the RAAF and the people of Eden, on the NSW far south coast, is still remembered by the local people living there today.

It was Eden’s beautiful and secure waters at Twofold Bay which first attracted the Air Force and their early model floatplanes.

Last but not least were the attractive young daughters of the famous Logan family, Jean, Molly and Margaret.

The girls not only rowed fuel out to the aircraft, they also arranged for their mother to provide meals for the aircrew at the magnificent Scottish manor house, Edrom Lodge, on the water’s edge.

Before World War II, the RAAF operated a number of different types of seaplanes and floatplanes and many of them ranged long distances around the Australian coast.

On other occasions they operated as aerial spotters for the Royal Australian Navy carrying out exercises in the Eden area.

One of the RAAF flying boats known to have operated at Twofold Bay was the elegant twin-engine Supermarine Southampton, of which the Air Force received two in 1928. Both were based with the Coastal Reconnaissance Flight at Point Cook in Victoria.

The other floatplanes that operated around Eden and Twofold Bay were Fairey IIIDs. Six of the type were received from Britain in 1920 and also based at Point Cook. Used for survey and reconnaissance, they are remembered for many pioneering flights along our coastline, including WGCDR Goble and FLGOFF McIntyre’s around Australia flight in 1924.

In 1925 three Fairey floatplanes were temporarily based at Eden for interception and reconnaissance exercises with the Navy, during a passage between Sydney and Melbourne.

Both the Supermarine and Fairey aircraft are depicted in photos taken by the Logan family off their wharf in the 1920s and 1930s. It is said the fuel for them was stored in drums at the family boathouse and a convenient and romantic cave nearby.

In recognition of the Logan family’s help to the RAAF, one of the aircrew constructed a beautiful jewellery box for the family out of Claro “Habana” cigar boxes. That jewellery box, probably about seventy-five years old, is today the proud possession of Mary Grant at Eden, a granddaughter of the Logan family.

Edrom Lodge still proudly stands on a slight rise on the southern side of Twofold Bay.

It took three years to build from 1910 and was constructed without a single nail.

The large main hall retains its Scottish “Ingelnook”, or fireplace room. J.R. Logan’s office looks like he only left it yesterday, with its unique feature of a sandstone cliff face cut and set into one wall.

The Logan family retained Edrom Lodge until 1942 when it became a guest house for the well-to-do.

In 1980 it received classification by the National Trust and today, through the Forestry Commission of NSW, accommodates education and community groups for short-term stays.

 

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