Salmon Ponds

The Trout and Salmon Hatchery in Tasmania is the oldest hatchery in the Southern Hemisphere. Early settlers thought Tasmania's cool climate was suited to the fish from their homeland. The hatchery was built to receive live Salmon and Trout eggs (ova) transported from England.

Jacob and I feeding the Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout and Atlantic Salmon. They are so large, up to 8kg. Jacob got completely wet from head to toe when they jumped out for the food. He wasn’t happy.

Brown Trout are self sustaining and now wild populations exist in most of Tasmania’s rivers, lakes and estuaries. They are the basis of Tasmania’s recreational fishing along with a supplemented population of Rainbow Trout.

The gardens had trees from all over the world. Jacob had fun gathering the cones and nuts from each one.

Eggs are collected from wild fish by stripping fish ova (eggs) from the female and milt (sperm) from the male. Trout lay their eggs in gravel nests called redds. They are constructed by the females and consists of depressions and rises in the stream bed to promote water flow. They lay several thousand eggs.

This is a replica of how the first lot of eggs successfully made it to Australia in 1864. It was a three month journey from England by sailing ship. Three previous attempts at transporting the eggs had failed. The ova were packed between layers of moss, charcoal and crushed ice inside a perforated box. On 4 May 1864, the first young Trout to swim in the Southern Hemisphere emerged from it’s egg.