Contents of this page

The farm

History

Management

Jobs on the Farm

Harvesting

Living in the NT

The farm

The ARDA-Tek barramundi farm is located at Berry Springs on the Blackmore River estuary at the southern end of Darwin Harbour. The farm comprises 5 earthen ponds, each between 500 and 650 meters long and 50 meters wide. There are in total 14 ha of ponds for aquaculture. Each of the five ponds is built as a “raceway”, with a central earthen baffle that separates the water flow such that the presence of low water flow-rate areas in minimised. This design helps to keep all parts of the pond well aerated with flowing water and healthy water means healthy fish

History

The farm was constructed in 1998 after purchase of the land by the present owners in 1997. The land was originally purchased by gold miners Messrs Foale and Schild in 1872, after release of the surveyed ½ sq mile land sections in this part of Australia by the government of the Colony of South Australia, which governed the Northern Territory at that time. This particular block sits across the river from the settlement of Southport, which at the time was a thriving gold rush town . Ocean going sailing boats would sail past to discharge gold seekers and cargo at the settlement. Foale and Schild never developed the land they purchased, and as the years passed Southport faded and was eaten up by termites and fast growing tropical vegetation. In 1995 the present owners identified the land as being suitable for fish and prawn farming, but first they had to locate the descendents of the two original owners who had died nearly a 100 years previously. After almost two years of searching old records and ironing out legalities the property was purchased in 1997.

Management

The farm is managed by Adam Body who began working in aquaculture in 1980 when he started his Master of Zoology degree at the University of NSW. When he finished his degree in 1983 he travelled to Japan where aquaculture was thriving amd then worked in Taiwan for a year at the Tungkang Marine Laboratory where he studied issues surrounding waste water from prawn farms. Following this he got deeply involved in prawn farming for some years in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. With a growing family in Australia, he decided to settle in Darwin and in 1997 his family company purchased the Berry Springs property. Adam's resume can be found here.

Jobs on the farm

ARDA-Tek farm employs three people. The main jobs on the farm are feeding the fish, maintaining the equipment and harvesting. Because the farm is salt water, equipment maintenance is ongoing. The farm runs on its equipment: if the equipment fails, then the farm fails as well, so maintenance is top priority. Feeding is done each morning and is usually over by about 9 am. Harvesting takes place once a week. The types of skills needed on the farm are pretty much the same as on any farm: one needs to be a jack of all trades with skills in net mending to replacing bearings in electric motors to welding stainless steel paddle wheel frames. Above all the farm staff need to be aware of problems that are about to arise, before they actually happen. Practical skills on the farm are held in higher regard than technical skills that are often taught to those wishing to enter the aquaculture workforce. Often the technical bias taught to budding fish farmers provides them with the wrong idea of what fish farming is all about, but a few days on a working farm generally sets them on the right track.

Have a look at the NT Barramundi Farming Handbook for more information

Harvesting

The barra reach harvest size (about 2.6 kg) about 15 months after stocking. Three people are required for harvesting so existing staff can do the job. The harvest procedure involves crowding the number of fish required for the harvest next to the pond wall with a net and then scooping the fish out with a special scoop net. The crowded fish are a little agitated at first when they realise that they are being crowded together, but we make things more comfortable for them by supplying them with a flow of highly aerated water into the net. After about 5 minutes the fish calm down and we begin to scoop them out in 200 kg lots utilising the hydraulic crane on the back of our farm truck.

At this time the fish are weighed using scales on the crane. The scooped fish are placed immediately into an ice slurry which stuns them into unconsciousness. The time taken from being scooped from the water to unconsciousness in the ice slurry is less than a minute. This technique of keeping the fish free of stress and icing the live fish down immediately leads to fish of extremely fine quality. The whole chilled fish are handled only once more when they are packed for final transport to the buyer. The buyers assess the freshness of the whole fish by the gill colour (bright red) and the mucous from the fish's skin (the more the better). Fresh whole and chilled barra harvested this way have a long “shelf life” of more than 2 weeks as long as they are kept at 0-4 deg C. This makes these whole barra in high demand by the most astute seafood buyers

Living in the NT

ARDA-Tek farm is situated about 70 kms from Darwin, which is a vibrant multicultural city with a rich and varied history. Darwin International Airport is 45 mins by car from the farm, and is a hub for Asia with Singapore only 4 hours away, and Kupang and Dili each about 1 hour away. Flights are frequent to these destinations as well as to Australian capitals. The Top End of the NT is a wilderness of natural wonders as well as Aboriginal Heritage areas. The schools and hospitals are excellent and all in all, its a great place to live!