It’s oyster season on Australia’s Sapphire Coast

New South Wales tourism board Destination NSW just announced that oyster season is on in Australia’s Sapphire Coast.

Oysters need the clearest, cleanest waters to thrive, and the waters around the Sapphire Coast are some of the most pristine in the state. For that reason, the southern New South Wales region, just north of the border with Victoria, is known as one of the best oyster regions in the country.

That said, Destination NSW presents its list of where to enjoy the area’s best shellfish throughout the season which began in October and tapers off in June. 

A taste of Tathra 

Just outside the seaside town of Tathra, Gary and Jo Rodely, along with their son Sam, own and run Tathra Oysters, a humble oyster farm and shop that has been lauded as one of the best Sydney rock oyster farms in the country. 

The oysters are grown with a minimal intervention philosophy in the pristine waters of Nelson Lake, which lies just north of Tathra in the Mimosa Rocks National Park. 

They’re so prized you’ll find them on the menus of some of the most renowned, award-winning restaurants in Sydney. But when you’re in Tathra, you can just walk into the farm’s shop and have them freshly shucked in front of you. 

Organic produce at Wapengo Rocks

Also in Mimosa Rocks National Park, Wapengo Lake is home to the spectacular organic produce of oyster wrangler Shane Buckley. 

His farm, Wapengo Rocks, has picked up numerous awards as well as praise for its sustainable farming practices, like using only recycled materials and a floating platform that encourages the growth of native seagrasses, which can be limited by the shade produced by traditional fixed oyster farms. 

If you’re there during the season, late October to late June or early July, you can pick them up straight from the farm, just make sure to call before you go to ensure someone can be there to help. 

An oyster bar on the water at Merimbula Gourmet Oysters 

On the edge of the clear sapphire waters of Merimbula Lake, lies a cute barn with a weathered sign displaying the day’s catch, and a deck overlooking an oyster farm. 

Order a platter of oysters and a plate of prawns, sit with the sun on your face and watch the quiet happenings of the lake. 

It’s called The Oyster Barn and it’s the farm gate shop and oyster bar by Pip and Dom Boyton of Merimbula Gourmet Oysters.  

Pambula Lake’s finest, shucked, unshucked or bottled at Broadwater Oysters 

A half-hour drive south of Tathra, Pambula Lake has been home to oyster growers for more than 100 years. 

Here, the clean waters of the Pambula and Yowaka rivers combine with the tides of the Pacific Ocean to produce perfect conditions for a quality-focused farm like Broadwater Oysters. 

Owners Greg Carton and Sue McIntyre have been running the farm for more than two decades, and are rightly proud of their award-winning oysters, which you can buy shucked, unshucked or bottled, direct from the source. 

Tour the river and the farm with Captain Sponge  

Go behind the scenes on Pambula Lake, between Eden and Merimbula, with Captain Sponge’s Magical Oyster Tours. 

Brett Weingarth, aka Captain Sponge, will take you out on a fun (as well as educational) two-hour tour in which you’ll learn all about oyster farming from someone in the business, and get to shuck and taste Sydney rock oysters fresh from the lake. 

You’ll then cruise down the Pambula River, where ancient Aboriginal middens, distinct concentrations of shell remnants, offer evidence that oysters have been popular here for a very long time.