Humpty Doo Barramundi is working with the Thamarrurr Development Corporation to start up an oyster farm at Wadeye, 400 kilometres south-west of Darwin by road.

Indigenous workers have undergone training at the barramundi farm and in their own community.

Aloysius Nganbe, who is a ranger at Wadeye, was one of eight men who visited Australia’s largest barramundi farm in February for training in everything from feeding the barra to net mending, from packing to “pigging” – cleaning the pipes to keep the water and fish healthy.

“Growing oysters on-Country is a good idea,” he says. “We all want it to succeed.”

Fellow oyster farmer Kevin Dumoo says: “We think this work is good for our community. We want to take our skills home and teach other people.

“Having work like this on our homeland is a good thing.”

Humpty Doo Barramundi co-owner Tarun Richards says they have been approached by several Aboriginal communities for help with moving into aquaculture. And the barra farm is keen to assist where they can.

“We were a start-p business once,” says Managing Director Dan Richards. “We have been there.

“As a fifth generation Territory family, we understand where they are coming from and we have the skills and experience to help them on this journey.”

The Territory Government’s Department of Trade, Business and Asian Relations has helped fund the training package.

“The level of engagement has been great, with the same participants returning throughout the program and building skills and relationships with our team,” says Ms Richards.

“Both parties have learned a lot and enjoyed the pilot. We are now working with Thamarrurr on the next steps to bring their aspirations to life at Wadeye.”

A team from Humpty Doo Barramundi visited Wadeye several times in the last year to see where the oysters were going to be placed and to help with practical aquaculture skills training.

“Between us, we are developing a great two-way learning model – they learn from us in a real-world commercial farming operation and we learn from them the challenges they face in their operation and how these skills can apply on-Country.”

The Wadeye project needs more support for non-accredited training.

Ms Richards is undertaking a Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship to explore models where a farm’s supply chain shares the costs and benefits of delivering projects on First Nations communities.

It’s hoped these learnings can be applied to help further Humpty Doo Barramundi’s work with Thamarrurr Development Corporation.

“Working alongside experienced teams in the real world business environment for extended periods is the best way for people to gain the real skills they need to work in our industry.

“Working in a real-world environment and solving problems alongside experienced people will help to further develop the skills needed to work and operate a business in aquaculture.

“Humpty Doo Barramundi is in a position to mentor the team from Wadeye as they further develop their life experiences and skills, building on relationships with people who may have different experiences
but share a common interest.”

The blacklip oyster spats – young oysters that attach to a surface after hatching from larvae – are] taken from the Darwin Aquaculture Centre to Wadeye, where they are hung in offshore baskets to filter feed as the tide washes over them twice a day.

The first batch of oysters was deployed in Wadeye in December 2023 and the second in December last year.

“Survival and growth rates are exceeding expectations,” says corporation deputy chief executive Tracey Leo, who worked in senior roles at Humpty Doo Barramundi for more than 10 years.

The oysters are growing well at Wadeye, and all food safety requirements have been met to enable them to be grown on and sold in the future.

TDC is proving the concept working just with the Nganbe family at the moment to get the technical and operating model worked out before expanding to other families.

Capital infrastructure funding has been gained and will be deployed across all family farms.

“All profits from the oysters will go back to the family,” Ms Leo says.

The local economy at Wadeye is based on service delivery and housing construction.

The oyster farms are being developed due to the aspirations of the Nganbe family in response to the limited community-based employment opportunities in Wadeye.

“Obstacles aside, mainstream employment does not meet the aspirations of many local people to work on-Country ‘in our space, in our time’,” says Ms Leo.

“What is starkly missing from the landscape here is family owned and driven enterprises so this is what we are trying to establish now.

“I share the view of local people that family and clan-based enterprise development is the key to sustainable economic development in the region.”

Oysters have been farmed in Europe at least since Roman times. All oysters sold in Australian restaurants are farmed.

Humpty Doo Barramundi continues to thrive – it started by selling six kilograms of fish per week in 1993 and now regularly harvests up to 130 tonnes per week. It has a proven record in growing an enterprise from a micro-scale to become an industry leader. TQ