5 minute read
Pond to Plate
Curiosity on a number of drive-by occasions, has seen my Toyota Landcruiser slow in speed as I try to get a peak of the new Redclaw Crayfish Farm on Beaudesert-Nerang Road, and I know I’m not alone. When the opportunity arose to make this a purposeful visit and not just a nosey parker call- in, we jumped at the chance to sit with one of the owners and operator Alex van Velzen, to uncover the story behind the Scenic Rim’s newest Ag Tourism and Primary Producer development, Australian Sweetwater Crays.
For those of us who like the stats, Australian Sweetwater Crays operates out of a 50-hectare property, with 4 hectares of ponds and 4 more hectares in the pipeline over the next few years.
The van Velzen family started building the crayfish farm in late 2020 and were selling redclaw by Christmas 2021. Completely off-grid and equipped with industrial solar and batteries, the farm is also extremely light on water usage. All the water for the dams is collected from rain runoff from the surrounding hills into a 100ML holding dam. The nutrient rich water from the redclaw ponds is treated and recycled on site with no wastewater leaving the property boundaries. The farm currently harvests about 100kg/week and with the hope they will increase to 200kg/week over the coming year.
Here is our interview with the quick-witted and delightful young farmer Alex.
As a Chemical Engineer, what made you want to go into Crayfish farming? How did that even happen? I stumbled upon a redclaw farm for sale near Gympie, and I met to the owner (who was an ex-Chemical engineer) and we got talking. It sounded like a great lifestyle with decent profitability and lots of freedom. We almost bought his farm but decided to start from scratch closer to home, so here we are.
How long did you search for the perfect property to set up this venture? We looked at over 100 properties between Gympie, Toowoomba, and NSW over a 10-month period before finding this property on our doorstep. We got very lucky as it is so close to the family home on Mt Tamborine and satisfies almost all of the criteria for a successful redclaw farm (topography, soil type, road access, water catchment etc).
Has it been a case of trials and tribulations or has it been a straightforward process? What would you say has been the most important lesson you’ve learnt about becoming a Crayfish farmer? We were very lucky that most redclaw farmers are very free with their knowledge and experience and eager to lend advice. There is no real standardized farm design, so we have picked good aspects of many redclaw farms that we have visited and created our own unique blend of design elements. It has not been a flawless start, but things are definitely coming along nicely. The most important lesson has been to keep an open mind about opportunities and adapt the plan to suit. Many interesting avenues have opened up just by us putting ourselves out there and sometimes we have completely changed focus because of an informal conversation.
What are you most proud of with your farm? The fact that we can produce such a tasty product and still be so kind to the environment. I was raised to be very environmentally conscious and to be able to build a business that embodies that consciousness is very satisfying. The farm is completely off-grid with solar power, we harvest only rainwater (don’t pull from creeks or rivers), the farm his a massive carbon sink due to the amount of algae grown in the ponds, and we recycle pots from plant nurseries to make habitat for the crayfish.
And what would you say is the most rewarding part of your business? Interacting with the customers and seeing how interested and excited they are about what we do here. We get customers from all walks of life, some who have grown up eating redclaw and some who have never heard of them before, but all eager to try our crays. It is really nice to feel like a valued part of the community.
What is the biggest selling point to eating redclaw crayfish? Is it just the flavour or are there health benefits? The great taste is obviously a plus. Many people who haven’t tried them before fall in love pretty quickly. They are often surprised at how different they are from other seafoods like prawns or bugs. I may be biased but eating something that is grown locally and sustainably farmed definitely makes you feel good eating it.
In your opinion, why is redclaw farming not more popular? Most people don’t know about it. It requires significant
capital to start a farm from scratch, and we had to go through almost 3 years of planning and approvals, but once you are up and running it is relatively easy. Most farms are run by just one or two people and do quite well. I hope that we see more people getting into redclaw in the future as the industry is quite small at the moment and many existing farmers are likely to retire in the next 5 to 10 years.
What are your plans for the future of the farm? We will keep expanding our ponds to increase redclaw production. We also hope to put a café/restaurant at the entrance to the farm in the next few years which will double as a shop for selling our redclaw. We agist sheep and cattle on the property at the moment but we will get our own soon and plan to offer lamb to the public and supply our restaurant once it’s up and running.
The farm is open every Saturday for redclaw sales, between 9am – 3pm and the camp site can be booked via Hipcamp - hipcamp.com
