The pristine waters of the Batavia Coast are set to add a new locally grown delicacy to seafood platters across Western Australia as the region begins to harvest its first farmed rock oysters.
After seven years of work developing their business 400 kilometres north of Perth, Josh Johnson and Justin Macdonald have just finished growing, shucking and packing their first harvest of Sydney rock oysters in waters off the Abrolhos Islands.
However, establishing an entirely new industry in the Midwest region has been a hard slog.
“The journey has involved trying different species,” Mr Johnson said.
“[We did] a lot of intensive water testing for quality and just basically getting through the red tape to be able to get our certifications to be able to grow the oysters.
“We only really got our certification last month.”
Josh Johnson, Tanya Johnson, Justin MacDonald and Kylie MacDonald in the Abrolhos Island Oysters processing facility. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Lucinda Jose)
Inspiration for the business, Abrolhos Island Oysters, came to the pair during a chat over a couple of beers.
Two oyster species were initially rejected before the business duo settled on the Sydney rock oyster.
After the initial trial and error, the business is looking forward to building up the industry in the local region.
The pair will work with a second local aquaculture project to share processing facilities and branding in a co-op-type structure.
They hope to grow the industry to eventually supply four million fresh oysters to the domestic market each year.
These oyster farms are the most remote in the country. (Supplied: Mark Flannagan)
Knowledge sharing
Justin MacDonald grew up as part of the fishing community in the Abrolhos Archipelago, a chain of 122 islands roughly 60km west of Geraldton.
He said oyster farms in this region were the most remote in the country.
“The ones at the Abrolhos are oceanic water, very clean pristine waters,” Mr MacDonald said.
“Compared to where normally these sort of oysters are grown, in river mouths or near shore sort of environments, [this environment is] very clean and we reckon they have got a unique flavour.”
The project has received almost half a million dollars in state government funding for water nutrient monitoring and processing equipment to help establish the local industry.
It took roughly three years to grow the tiny oyster spat, supplied by the Albany Shellfish Hatchery, into a product ready for sale.
Young oysters are supplied by the Albany Shellfish Hatchery. (Supplied: Mark Flannagan)
The second aquaculture venture, similarly named Abrolhos Oysters, has been spearheaded by Mullewa grain farmer Mark Flannagan.
With approximately 400,000 shells in the water, Mr Flannagan hopes his first harvest will occur sometime in the new year.
The oysters will be sold to the domestic market as a shucked and whole product. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Lucinda Jose)
He said sharing knowledge between the two projects was essential to establishing the farms and would be important for marketing.
“Selling into the local market in Geraldton, they [the oysters] should sell themselves,” he said.
“They should be a good product to have on the doorstep and not coming out of South Australia or Albany, we reckon it will be pretty good.”
