On this three-hour tour, feast on mussels plucked straight from the ocean. Photo / Portarlington Mussel Tours
On this three-hour tour, feast on mussels plucked straight from the ocean. Photo / Portarlington Mussel Tours
Once considered the poor man’s oyster, mussels are flexing their muscle on the Australian dining and tourism scene, writes Christine Retschlag
On a blustery Bellarine day, long lines of black mussels are swaying in the breeze like an old Greek woman’s washing.
To one side, the colourful crew of the aptly-named trawler Feral – all twisted steel and gadgets – are hauling in these Port Philip Bay bloomers – rustic ropes covered in molluscs.
To the other side, tourists aboard the much more refined Valerie are participating in a gender-reveal party… with a difference.
Lance Wiffen, who owns one of Australia’s leading mussel-growing companies Sea Bounty, plucks a mollusc from a rope, prises open its shell, and informs us that those with pink flesh inside are female, while pure white are male.
Mussels with pink flesh inside are female, and are more bitter. Photo / Christine Retschlag
Forget paddock to plate, out here it’s mollusc to mouth, straight from the ocean. And without a hint of irony, the females are more bitter.
This journey begins at Portarlington in south-west Victoria, aboard Valerie with Portarlington Mussel Tours - believed to be the only one of its type in Australia.
The boat crawls like a crab along the peninsula where basic shacks perch in Bellarine Bayside – the largest caravan park in the southern Hemisphere and home to three new Hobbit-like beach pods.
Glance starboard and you’ll glimpse the perky peaks of the sing-songy You Yangs – from the traditional Aboriginal words Wurdi Youang or Ude Youang – believed to mean “big or large hill”.
The day smells of salt doused with fresh optimism.
Mussels in their raw form before reaching your dinner plate. Photo / Christine Retschlag
Lance, a fourth-generation farmer, who has launched this tour with his wife Lizzie, says with its abundance of phytoplankton on which mussels like to feed, optimum temperature and nutrient mix, Port Philip Bay produces the native Angasi oyster – the only place in the world it can be found.
Lance, a fourth-generation farmer, launched Portarlington Mussel Tours with his wife Lizzie. Photo / Christine Retschlag
The traditional Indigenous land and water owners of the area used to feast on these native oysters, but by 1841 were banned from harvesting them by the early settlers who farmed the oysters for themselves, devastating this supply of seafood by the 1880s.
Lance, a former scallop farmer whose family moved away from dairy farming because it was commercially unviable, started with 3 hectares of mussel farming in Port Philip Bay in 1986. Sea Bounty now farms 200ha and employs 17 people.
“Like all farming, it hasn’t been easy. When we started farming, we had a large customer in Sydney and no mussel sales here in Victoria,” he says.
“We went through a lot of hard times trying to get this industry working, there were a lot of big companies trying to buy us out, we built the hatchery, but we couldn’t get more spat (young shellfish used as the raw material of mussel farms) and starfish were moving into the bay.
“But I got out here and thought ‘I love it.’ I was born and bred a farmer and we like growing stuff.”
Guests of Portarlington Mussel Tours sail aboard the refined Valerie. Photo / Christine Retschlag
Lance says mussel farming is sustainable - the more you grow, the better it is for the environment as it uses no fresh water, land feed, pesticides or chemicals.
Because mussel shells consist of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere, the farms are considered a “carbon sink”, which locks up carbon for millions of years in a process called bio-mineralisation. At the same time, mussel farms attract and house other marine species creating a diverse ecosystem.
On this three-hour tour, feast on produce for which this region is renowned, such as Bellarine Smokehouse Salmon and Barramundi Dip; Drysdale Goats Cheese; and Portarlington Bakehouse Bread, washed down with a local alcoholic beverage.
Further out in the bay and with 1600 mussels on each rope that has been plunged five metres deep, there’s plenty of molluscs to devour.
The mussels are cleaned in a machine called “Mussolini”, which crackles like a popcorn maker before Lizzie cooks an entree of Mussels Kilpatrick, followed by Steamed Mussels drenched with a local cider.
For Lance and Lizzie, mussel farming runs through their veins.
“I go out there and lift the line out on the water and it’s got beautiful mussels on it,” Lance says.
“It gets in your blood. Once a fisherman, always a fisherman.”
Portarlington is known as the Mussel Capital of Victoria, harvesting 60 per cent of Australia’s mussels
Each year, Sea Bounty sells more than 1000 tonnes of mussels, contributing to one million meals around Australia and overseas
The three-hour tour costs AU$230pp (NZ$245) and includes cooking demonstrations, local produce, mussel dishes, tea/coffee and a complimentary local alcoholic Bellarine beverage of choice.
The tour includes cooking demonstrations, local produce, mussel dishes and more. Photo / Portarlington Mussel Tours
Checklist
PORTARLINGTON
Getting there
Air New Zealand, Jetstar and Qantas fly direct from Auckland to Melbourne.
Port Phillip Ferries offer services 365 days a year direct from Melbourne Docklands to Portarlington. Alternatively, Portarlington is an easy 25-minute drive from Geelong or 20 minutes from the Queenscliff/Sorrento ferry terminal.
Stay
The Novotel Geelong, with its Waterfront Restaurant & Bar, sets the scene for your day out on the bay. novotelgeelong.com.au
