The life of an oyster farmer is not as idyllic as it seems. After growing fresh local oysters for 37 years, Urunga’s John Lindsay knows all too well that oyster farming can come with all the immense challenges faced by farmers on the land.
By Michael Burt
Dought conditions are a blessing and not a curse for oyster farmers like John Lindsay.
A dry year means ideal quality water pasture conditions for John and son Jackson to fatten Sydney Rock Oysters on six hectares of leases on the Kalang River.
This year has not been one of those, but the 2025 oyster crop has survived multiple flood events and flourished in recent weeks. The annual harvest of three-year-old Sydney Rock oysters commenced last weekend, and John is pleased with the early results.
“It is shaping up to be a good year, if we don’t get any more heavy rainfall. There is a lot of oysters out there and the quality is excellent,” John said.
“We will be harvesting for the next four months. November and December are generally the best two months for us.”
Most oysters are sold to wholesalers in Sydney and Brisbane. Fresh oysters are also sold direct from the oyster shed in Urunga every Saturday morning during the harvest period.
John said recent heavy rainfall did delay the harvest by a few weeks and earlier flood events impacted their spat or baby oyster crop.
“We’ve always grown our own spat, but the floods this year messed with our spat catch, so we bought a heap from the south coast.”
“The spat have doubled in size in eight weeks, which is a good growth rate.”
Workplaces don’t come much more idyllic than that of an oyster farmer, but it is a challenging local food industry to be involved in.
Lindsay’s Oysters is the sole surviving farm on the Kalang River and is one of only two oyster farms left in the Bellingen shire. A norovirus outbreak in 2008 followed by a bout of QX disease forced most farmers to exit the industry
“It took eight years to fix the Norovirus issue. I was lucky back then in that we had the shop as well. That meant we were only losing $50,000 and year instead of $100,000.”
“Then we got QX disease in 2011. That killed all the oysters, and we could not harvest out of the Kalang for three years.”
John said the Kalang River has been oyster disease free for the past decade, but Mother Nature has dealt a few blows in the form of major flood events.
“There is always light at the end of the tunnel. You just have to keep saying that next year will be a good year, and this is looking like one of those.
• Fresh oysters from Lindsays Oyster farm are available for purchase direct from the oyster shed behind 72 Giinagay Way in Urunga every Saturday morning, 8.00am to 12.00pm
Time to speed up disaster support
The NSW Government has ramped up efforts to process disaster assistance applications in a step forward for farmers affected by recent flood, storm and cyclone events in the state.
The Minns Government announced last week it would double the number of staff processing disaster assistance applications for primary producers by the end of the week.
NSW Farmers Oyster Committee Chair Brandon Armstrong said many farming families have disaster assistance had been far too long coming for many farming families in the Hunter, North and Mid North Coasts.
“Be it dairy and beef farmers, or oyster growers, or anyone in between, the impacts of successive flood and storm events in NSW have been no less than catastrophic, and there’s a long road to recovery still ahead,” Mr Armstrong said.
“Our farming families have waited long enough, and it’s time disaster assistance gets to where it’s needed, so farmers can get back on their feet.
“Fodder, freight, cleanup and a long list of other costs are bearing down heavily on the farming families who have been affected by these events, and the process to apply for disaster assistance has been complex, slow and difficult for many.”
Farmers were encouraged to contact the NSW Government’s Rural Assistance Authority on 1800 678 593 or at rural.assist@raa.nsw.gov.au if they had questions about disaster support, their eligibility, or their application for disaster assistance grants. The Rural Financial Counselling Service can also assist with applications for disaster assistance.
It’s shucking time at Lindsays Oysters in Urunga. The 2025 harvest in underway, with fresh local oysters for sale direct from thier shed in Urunga every Saturday morning.
It takes three years to grow out a Sydney Rock Oyster from spat like this.