Sydney Rock Oysters - Description

Sydney rock oysters are cultured in estuarine areas and rivers of New South Wales and Queensland, and at Albany in Western Australia.

The bulk of production in New South Wales occurs on the central coast, with production also from north and south coast estuaries. In Queensland, production of sydney rock oysters generally occurs in the south, from the New South Wales border to Hervey Bay.

(The species harvested in northern Queensland are the milky oyster and the blacklip oyster).

Farming Development

The cultivation of the sydney rock oyster in New South Wales dates from 1872 (NSW Fisheries 2001). Today this species still accounts for most (94 per cent) of the edible oyster production in New South Wales. The other edible oysters cultivated in New South Wales are the pacific oyster, in the Port Stephens area (around 5 per cent of production), and the flat oyster, on the south coast (around 1 per cent).

The oyster industry in New South Wales continues to restructure, with the number of permit holders falling from 542 in 1998-99 to 461 in 2000-01. Over the same period, the number of producing oyster farms (that is, the number of permit holders who reported production) fell from 357 to 306.

This fall in numbers has been attributed to permit holders with little or no production leaving the industry largely as a result of ongoing fees and charges associated with the maintenance of the state's shellfish Quality Assurance Program.

Annual production of sydney rock oysters in New South Wales, which was fairly stable in the three years 1998-99 to 2000-01 at around 7.9 million dozen, fell to 7.4 million dozen in 2001-02 (table 2). The value of production in 2001-02 was $29.6 million at the farm gate.

There has also been a tendency for the production of premium ­plate� grade sydney rock oysters to decline in favor of smaller ­bistro� and ­processing� grades. While this trend is to some extent driven by market forces and disease management strategies, it is to a large extent driven by a need to maintain cash flow in a capital and labor intensive industry. The trend is unlikely to be reversed until there is a significant improvement in profit margins and the investment climate in the industry.

Production of plate grade oysters in 2001-02 was 1.9 million dozen, representing around 26 per cent of total sydney rock oyster production.

In Queensland, a total of 112 oyster areas authorised for rock oyster aquaculture, all south of Hervey Bay, were surveyed in 2005-06 with 97 returns received.  The total production in Queensland decreased by 24% from 213 300 dozen in 2004–05 (34 oyster producing areas) to 161 500 dozen in 2005–06 (30 oyster producing areas). The value of the industry decreased by more than 20% from $736 000 to $574 000 for the same period. The average price per dozen oysters increased marginally from $3.45 to $3.56 per dozen.

In Western Australia, the Albany Aquaculture Park contains two sites leased for the production of oysters (principally the western rock lobster, Saccostrea affin. glomerata) and abalone.

( REF. Australian Aquaculture. Industry profiles for selected species)

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