Meadowbank Hatchery Hits The Mark

Meet the team at Meadowbank—the site that is self-proclaimed as growing the best smolt in the warmest freshwater site in Tasmania, possibly the world.

Meadowbank is unique for a lot of reasons including that the water source is drawn from the River Derwent just downstream of Meadowbank dam. The dam evens out the daily high’s and low’s in river water temperatures giving the fish a fairly stable thermal environment.

Phil Adams, Leading Hand, explains that this makes for unique salmon growing conditions. “This water is very warm and can sit around 20 degrees Celsius for a good three months of the year,” said Phil. As the temperature only changes slowly on a daily basis it allows the fish to acclimate and perform well even at the higher temperatures. "We think that Meadowbank is possibly the hottest site for growing salmon in the world.” –Meadowbank hatchery is located on the banks of the Derwent River in Glenora, within the upper Derwent Valley—an area known for its weather extremes. –

“It is pretty cold in winter and warm in summer. Overall it is a good site and is nice and airy so we don’t have issues with damp like other hatcheries that are out in the bush.”

The team have put a lot of pride into landscaping the site which serves as a dual purpose of looking great while offering some protection from the extremes. They also grow their own vegetables in a repurposed intake pipe which gives the site a homely feel. Meadowbank is capable of holding close to a million fish which are hatched at Lonnavale and Forest Home. They stay at Meadowbank until they reach around 300 grams at which point they are transferred to Huon’s southern operations.

–Blake Lennox, Phil Adams, Mike Lynch, Sam Williams, and Dusty ––Meadowbank's wetlands –

–“We do three transfers a year and grow out-of-season smolt. As the fish get bigger, we move them up through the tanks into our two large ones where they can easily be pumped onto the tankers.” –

Meadowbank is a traditional flow-through hatchery with fish waste removed from the water via micro-strainers, settling tanks and a large, mature wetland. “We have eels, galaxis, trout, and platypi in the wetland along with a variety of reeds and vegetation. It is a great habitat that helps remove nutrients from the water before it returns to the river.”

Some of the waste water is used to irrigate the site as well as a neighbouring property that runs livestock.

Meadowbank, like all of Huon’s freshwater sites, is subject to extensive environmental monitoring including testing of the wastewater, macro invertebrate sampling, and soil and groundwater sampling to ensure that there is no build-up of nutrients or salts.