Highway One: Crayfishing at Southend, South Australia
Catherine Lawson and David Bristow, along with baby Maya, are doing a lap of Highway One, the road that circles Australia.
“IT’S JUST CRAYFISH, for goodness sake,” says Sharon Agiomamitis, a buyer for Five Star Seafoods, a Port MacDonnell-based exporter of live crays to China.
But at nearby Beachport, where Sharon haggles for crays off 20 fishing boats, crayfish is big business and the competition for catches is cut throat.
“It’s dog-eat-dog; it’s not a nice job,” she says. “It totally stresses me out!”
The crays she’s talking about are southern rock lobsters, which sell for around $90 a piece in Adelaide and are a favoured Chinese splurge.
Away from the stress at Beachport’s busy commercial pier, we watch father and son team Bob and James Butterworth setting their cray pots from land and retrieving them 24 hours later by treading carefully out over the rock shelf at low tide and snaring them with a grappling hook.
Despite the obvious dangers of breaking waves, Bob and James’ fishing session proves to be a far more leisurely affair that delivers three good-sized crays, one of which we devour just hours out of the sea, gently sautéed in garlic and butter.
Some crayfishermen with their catch.(Credit: David Bristow)
RELATED ARTICLES
…More Highway One articles
Australia’s 18 top camping spots
Camping: the classic Aussie past-time
Top 5 great Aussie road trips
Australian Geographic’s top 100 icons of all time
Top 10 Australian outback experiences
Wilderness by bike: the Munda Biddi Trail
Predict the weather without a forecast
Rottnest Island’s best beaches
Touring the Kimberley from the aerial highway
Australia’s 8 greatest surf spots
6 great Australian train trips
Best winter escapes in Australia
Travel photography tips
10 best kayak day trips in Australia
18 of the best day walks in Australia
Massive new Indigenous Protected Area declared
Gallery: The top five greatest Aussie roadtrips
Indian Pacific celebrates 40 years
