It’s been nearly four months since we’ve seen the familiar smiling face of Noel Baggaley at our markets. Noel farms the Sydney Rock Oyster, rated as the most flavoursome oysters in the world (the Irish are 2nd and the French are 3rd)!!
Like most of our community, we have all been affected by the floods in one way or another. When you’re an oyster farmer, the rain only has to reach 30ml in 24 hours before a 21 day closure period is put in place. Even then, the water testing has to meet the highest standards of non-pollutants levels before they are allowed to continue.
The rains started playing havoc with Noel in January, forcing closure. Only to be followed by the big floods, which saw him lose over 2,000 oyster baskets, with only a couple of hundred finding their way back to him. The force of the water lifted Noel’s shed up off its footings as the water reached chest height, where the previous flooding had only reached his ankles. Which meant he also lost all his processing equipment and the contents of his shed and, therefore business infrastructure. This was not the first time he had to start again.
Noel lost 60% of his stock three years ago. During this time, he doubled his capacity to make himself more resilient. Which means he has the stock to rebuild his farm. Positively Noel says when you look at it like that he ‘s only really lost 10%! Which is fortunate as an oyster is handled 18 times and takes three years before it reaches the consumer.
So when asking him why he sticks with it, Noel lets out his much-loved chuckle and said, ‘INSANITY’! But in all seriousness, he said he has been involved in seafood for over 40 years and used to have several fishing boats. During that time, he just became interested and passionate about oysters.
Find Brunswick Oysters at our New Brighton Farmers Market every Tuesday from 8am-11am
And Mullum Farmers Market every Friday from 7am-11am.
