"They can’t survive that": Oyster farmers need help to recover from six months of climate disaster

Oysters farmers across the Mid North Coast have been hit hard by last month’s flood event, with millions of oysters dead or dying as a result of contaminated water, and infrastructure  damaged or destroyed.

Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns announced further financial support for small businesses and primary producers affected by the May floods, but farmers and local representatives are saying it’s not enough.

Rob Redmayne, co-owner of Seven Seas Oysters in Port Stephens, is one of a number of oyster farmers dealing with huge losses.

Contaminated floodwater has killed stock, damaged infrastructure and led to a pause on sales. The financial losses are piling up by the day.

Millions of oysters lost

Redmayne told the Mid North Coaster “it’s been a pretty rough week”, reporting two million of his oysters had died.

“Pretty much all of our stock is dead or dying,” he said. “We’ve lost a significant amount of gear. The shed flooded, so a lot of our equipment is flood-damaged.”

Redmayne farms Sydney Rock and Pacific oysters – both species grow in salt water and are negatively impacted by floodwater and fresh rain water.

“Every sort of waterway is impacted differently, but it’s the low salinity that’s death by a thousand cuts,” Redmayne said. “Pacifics are a lot more vulnerable to the fresh water.

“Rock oysters - if they’re in the fresh water for three weeks, they can’t survive that.” 

Sydney Rock Oysters have a three-to-four-year turnaround from spat to sale, while Pacifics grow in about 12 to 18 months. 

On top of fresh water diluting salt water, oyster farmers are dealing with sewage contamination, which has put a stop to oyster sales.

“The sewerage plants haven’t been able to handle that kind of volume of water, and so they discharge into the waterway, which gives us a blanket 21-day closure,” Redmayne said. “We can’t sell until we get a clear test and we’re probably not going to get a clear test for a while yet.”

Back to back disasters

Like other primary producers in the region, local oyster farmers have had a challenging year and are still in recovery from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred in March.

Redmayne explained that his local harvest area, Oyster Cove, where farmers sell their produce, has only been open for four days since Christmas due to floodwaters and sewage spills.

“We’ve sold one load of oysters since Christmas,” Redmayne said. “For us, it was a tiny load, it was only 300 hundred dozen.”

Flood insurance not an option

Redmayne says comprehensive flood coverage doesn’t exist for the oyster industry due to its “volatile” nature.

“Some people might be able to get certain pieces of equipment insured,” he said. “Like, if you buy a forklift, you can probably get that insured, but as a whole, it's pretty difficult to find oyster farming insurance because it's such a volatile environment.”

Last Tuesday (June 3) the federal and state governments announced the primary producer recovery grant of up to $25,000 to support the clean-up and the immediate recovery needs of primary producers and small businesses.

A drop in the ocean

Redmayne is “very grateful” for the $25,000 assistance, but says it isn’t enough. 

“It’s a drop in the ocean. It’s insignificant as far as the real cost of coming back from this,” he said. “There’s loans on offer, but everyone’s a bit gun shy of borrowing more money to pay back at the moment.”

Redmayne is hoping Category D funding will be announced, offering a larger financial grant. “That would definitely help,” he said.

Local MPs advocating for Category D funding

In a Facebook post on June 3, Cowper MP Pat Conaghan responded to the available grant announcement: “I know that this is not the full amount that we were hoping for and I will keep working with our local Mayors and State MPs to get this increased to the maximum threshold of $75,000 for primary producers and $50,000 for small businesses. This is, however, a start and a positive move in the right direction.”

Oxley MP Michael Kemp echoed Conaghan’s message, saying Category D funding would enable oyster farmers, and all primary producers, to better recover from the floods.

“We do know that there are oyster farmers [who] are currently considering leaving the industry because they’ve lost everything,” Kemp told the Mid North Coaster. “They’ve lost every bit of stock.

“Our oyster farmers have seen bales and debris and trees wash down the river and take out their entire stock and infrastructure.”

Thumbnail: (L) Rob and Tegan Redmayne of Seven Seas Oysters (R) Oyster spat. Images supplied.