Fresh Water Trout - Description.

Over the years a number of salmonid fish have been introduced into Australia. These include the brown trout (Salmo trutta), the rainbow trout (Oncorrhynchus mykiss), atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and chinook salmon (Oncorrhynchus tschawytscha).

The brown trout was introduced into Tasmania in 1868, and from there into New South Wales in 1873. Eggs of the rainbow trout and the brook trout were imported from New Zealand in 1890.

Brown trout and rainbow trout were also introduced into Western Australian waters around 1931 and 1942 respectively to provide food and recreational fishing, there being no large freshwater native species in southern areas except for the native catfish. As a cooler, temperate climate fish, trout in Western Australia is restricted to the south west corner of the state.

Farming Production

Rainbow trout and brown trout are the most common freshwater trout species grown in Australia. Brown trout are produced primarily for state based stock enhancement programs for recreational freshwater fishing in the cooler, upland catchments of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Rainbow trout are produced on a larger scale for human consumption, and to some extent for recreational purposes, including stock enhancement of public and private waters and ­on farm� ­fish-out� operations.

Victoria is the main freshwater trout producing state, with most trout farms located in the cooler northeast regions of the state.
In 1999, the Victorian Aquaculture Council (VAC) reported that, of the twenty-five Victorian farms licensed for growout production, twenty were situated on river catchments that flow into the Murray River system north of the Great Dividing Range, and the remaining five were situated on coastal drainage systems south of the Great Dividing Range. Ten farms representing around 80 per cent of total state production were located on tributaries of the upper Goulburn River system.

During the past three years there has been a steady increase in the development of flow through systems and growout production in Victoria. The sector features a high level of value adding on both intensive commercial large-scale farms and smaller integrated tourist ventures.
Victoria�s growout production of salmonids (primarily rainbow trout but also freshwater atlantic salmon) rose from 1294 tonnes in 1998-99 to 1732 tonnes in 2000-01 but fell to 1587 tonnes (valued at $10.7 million at the farm gate) in 2001-02.

In 2001-02, the sixteen producing trout farms in New South Wales produced 251 tonnes of trout valued at $2.0 million at the farm gate (tables 2, 3). This was over 20 per cent more than in 2000-01, when there was a large loss on one farm.

Western Australia�s annual trout production, which reached about 40 tonnes in the early to mid-1990s, contracted after 1997-98, partly due to the diversion of production for ­fish out� (pay to fish) operations (Department of Fisheries 1999). More recently, however, the Department of Fisheries has increased production of yearling rainbow trout for farmer assessment of production in saline ponds or dams, and Western Australia�s six trout farms together produced 24 tonnes, valued at around $150 000, in 2001-02 (table 3). Around 200 farmers participated in growout trials of rainbow trout in a project known as ­outback ocean�.

South Australia produced 26 tonnes of trout in 2000-01, valued at $192 000 at the farm gate (PIRSA 2002). Overall, total production of freshwater trout in the four states of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia (including freshwater atlantic salmon in Victoria) was 1888 tonnes valued at $13.0 million at the farm gate in 2001-02.

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

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