It is the first ever children’s book published, telling the tale of Eden’s most famous killer whale, Old Tom. Ms Sarah is ecstatic to share her book, My Mate...Old Tom with the Eden community.

“I have been very lucky to live here, I have made a personal approach putting children in the story as well as the town, everyone of Eden owns this book,” she said.

My Mate...Old Tom has been a long time coming for Ms Sarah, something she is conscious-smitten she had not written earlier. During her time in Eden’s Whale Museum as a tour guide she was constantly hassled by staff members to write a children’s book on Old Tom.

“Here I was as a tour guide telling people how wonderful Old Tom is, the cheeky, fun loving fellow – the orca with attitude I would say.”

“Family and friends always tell me to write about a certain animal or something, it’s almost a resistance for me to write,” she said.

“It just never occurred to me to write about Old Tom, I must have been as thick as a brick,” she said.

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“But then I thought, to write a story from a children’s perspective was the right thing to do.”

The story of Old Tom has such a rich history and significance to the Eden community, Ms Sarah said she was “scared stiff” .

“It was so complicated to do, the story is so well known and I had been thinking about how to do it for quite some time.”

She decided to write the story as a first person narrative, capturing the perspective of all who were important to Old Tom.  

“I was scared stiff though, I had to get sign offs from the curator of the museum, the Yuin people and the Davidson family.”

Ms Sarah said she was prepared to rewrite the book at any time, she was compelled to tell the story accurately.

“I was shocked when they all got back to me and said not to change a word.”

Ms Sarah will be attending the official Eden Whale Festival launch this Friday, November 2. Her book will be read by local school children followed by a book signing.