Summary

Oyster farming is one of the oldest aquaculture industries in Australia, dating back some 120 years (Nell, 2005).  While farming methods, particularly for Sydney rock oysters, changed little for several decades in the twentieth century, the Australian industry in recent decades has been a very dynamic industry with new farming areas and additional Australian states becoming involved in oyster production while some traditionally farming areas have experienced long term declines (Smith and Maguire, 1988).  Additional changes include the commissioning of oyster hatcheries, industries based on exotic oysters progressively becoming larger than those based on native oyster species, new environmental challenges being met, and better technology being developed by farmers, companies and researchers.  For earlier reviews of oyster farming industries in Australia see Holliday et al. (1988), Maguire, et al. (1988), O’Meley (1992), Nell (1993, 2001, 2002a, 2005), Holliday (1995), Brown et al. (1997), and Love and Langenkamp (2003) several of whom provide useful photographs.