Showcasing oysters at the Tiwi Cultural Festival
A simple request from community - to grow local oysters in Northern Territory waters - is moving closer to commercial reality after more than a decade of research, innovation and collaboration.
On Sunday, 19 July, the Darwin Aquaculture Centre (DAC), NT Fisheries, proudly joined Mantiyupwi Oyster Farm and Stotts Oyster Consulting Services at the 2026 Tiwi Cultural Festival in Wurrumiyanga, Bathurst Island. The event provided an exciting opportunity to showcase Tiwi-grown blacklip rock oysters (Saccostrea spathulata) and share the story behind the emerging Northern Territory oyster aquaculture industry.
The tasting marked an important moment for the program. Oysters produced as juveniles - or spat - at DAC and grown in the pristine waters of the Tiwi Islands were shared at a festival celebrating Tiwi culture, knowledge, creativity and community achievement.
Since the Northern Territory Government’s tropical oyster research program began in 2010, DAC has led the development of robust, science-based hatchery and nursery technologies specifically suited to the blacklip rock oyster and the tropical conditions of northern Australia.
This work has included broodstock conditioning, spawning, larval rearing, settlement, nursery production and farm grow-out research. It has also addressed major challenges affecting tropical oyster production, including food safety, biosecurity, farm infrastructure, environmental monitoring, product quality and cold-chain management.
These years of research have created a strong scientific foundation for a new Aboriginal-led aquaculture industry. DAC has now supplied more than one million oyster spat to community farms across the Territory, with an estimated 200,000 oysters already reaching market size.
Mantiyupwi Pty Ltd is one of four Aboriginal organisations working with DAC to develop blacklip rock oyster farming in the Northern Territory. The other community partners are Yagbani Aboriginal Corporation on South Goulburn Island, Groote Aqua Aboriginal Corporation on Groote Eylandt and Thamarrurr Development Corporation at Wadeye.
Each partnership combines community leadership and knowledge of Country with hatchery science, farm technology and technical support. Together, the partners are creating opportunities for locally owned businesses, employment, training and skills development while establishing a sustainable new source of premium Territory seafood.
The program has been supported by the Northern Territory Government (NTG), the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA), the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) and much other research, industry and community partners.
The vision is clear: to give Territorians the opportunity to enjoy native oysters grown by Aboriginal businesses in Northern Territory waters - and, in time, to build a distinctive tropical oyster industry capable of supplying markets beyond the Territory.
Recent progress toward amendments to national food standards means commercially farmed blacklip rock oysters could be available to Territorians later this year. This would represent a significant milestone for a program that began with a community aspiration and has grown through persistence, trust and more than a decade of research and development.
DAC and NT Fisheries sincerely thank Mantiyupwi and the Tiwi community for the invitation to participate in the festival, Stotts Oyster Consulting Services for its collaboration, and all community, research, government and industry partners for continuing to place their trust in DAC.
What began as a simple question - 'Can we grow our own oysters?' - is becoming a new reality: a science-backed, community-driven Northern Territory oyster aquaculture industry.
