Yabby - Description

The yabby (Cherax destructor and Cherax albidus) is a semi aquatic freshwater crayfish indigenous to the inland waters of central and eastern Australia and some coastal drainage areas of Victoria and New South Wales. yabbies were introduced to Western Australia from Western Victoria in 1932.
The species farmed in Western Australia is C. albidus, although there is still some taxonomic confusion related to this species, with many taxonomists recognising Cherax albidus and a subspecies of Cherax destructor (Cherax destructor albidus).

Cherax destructor is the most common species in eastern Australia, and represents about 90 per cent of production. Cherax albidus is farmed in Western Victoria.

Because yabbies are an introduced species in Western Australia, the licensed yabby farming industry is restricted to the drier inland developed agricultural area of the south west, to the north of Perth and to the east of Albany. As such, the yabby farming industry is located away from the marron zone.

Farming Development

Yabbies are produced mainly in existing dams and farm waterways as part of farm diversification. However, production from purpose built semi-intensive ponds (table 1) has grown steadily over the past ten years.

Yabby ponds are an ideal use for land with heavy clay based soils that may be otherwise unproductive, and can represent an opportunity for diversification for farmers who have access to water and spare land. A correctly designed system will allow water to be reused as irrigation for other crops after yabby production.

In Western Australia, the main producing state, yabby farming takes place in the eastern wheat belt and Great Southern regions. Yabbies are harvested commercially from existing farm dams by trapping. Although this type of farming is low yielding and dependent on access to a very large number of small dams, it is profitable for farmers because of low capital input and minimal operating costs. The yabby stocks are essentially self reproducing wild populations and the existing dams were built for the watering of stock or irrigation Western Australia�s licensing system allows operators to franchise large numbers of individual farmers each with several to many dams.

With production affected by drought, Western Australia produced only 102 tonnes of yabbies (valued at $1.3 million) in 2001-02, compared with 201 tonnes in 2000-01.

In South Australia, the first serious attempts at commercial yabby farming occurred during the early 1980s, with most operators farming freshwater crayfish as income supplementation and diversification from traditional farming. The major producers operate from a variety of locations including the West Coast, South East, Kangaroo Island and Adelaide Hills regions.

Farmed production in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia occurs mainly in purpose built ponds. In 2001-02 these three states produced 71 tonnes of yabbies, valued at $0.8 million at the farm gate.

Wild catch of yabbies occurs mainly in New South Wales, where production is probably of the order of 50 tonnes a year.

As yabbies spawn readily in farm dams and ponds, there is no need to purchase juveniles. Most farms produce more stock then they require.

( REF. Australian Aquaculture. Industry profiles for selected species)

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