There aren’t many waterways in Epping teeming with fish. But behind the brick walls of Building D at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Epping campus, thousands of Murray cod and silver perch fill tanks in a facility unknown to many local residents.
The college is home to one of Australia’s only commercial-size fish farms.
Primary Industries lecturer Andrew Christie is teaching 16 students the ins and outs of the commercial seafood farming industry which, he says, is still in relative infancy in Australia, and particularly in Victoria.
Amid rising concerns over country-of-origin labelling and foreign imports, Mr Christie is trying to educate his students about food security and safety when producing seafood products.
“Poor handling of farmed seafood products creates the potential for serious health impacts,” he said.
“Australia’s Atlantic salmon industry, our most lucrative aquaculture industry, has comprehensively demonstrated that people are prepared to pay more for what they perceive to be a clean, green Aussie product.”
Mr Christie said the industry would grow as consumers became more conscious of the genealogy of their food.
Melbourne Polytechnic has been running a bachelor of agriculture and technology (aquaculture) degree program at the Epping campus in various forms since 1997.
Some of the course’s graduates have gone on to work at fish farms around the nation, while others have been employed by biofuel manufacturers or to research sea cucumbers.
To find out more about the degree program, call Andrew Christie on 9269 1693.
