Travel > Travel Guides > Tasmania > Barilla Bay Oyster Farm

Barilla Bay Oyster Farm

- by Bettina James

Things to do > Tasmania > Port Arthur > Salamanca Place > Wineglass Bay & Freycinet Peninsula > Barilla Bay Oyster > Tasmanian Devil Park > Tahune Air Walk > Tahune Eagle Glide > Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs > Sea Kayaking

When you fly into Tasmania and drive over McGees Bridge over the spectacularly clean and clear waters, you realise this place is pristinely beautiful. It’s no wonder that they are world renown for gourmet food, particularly wine, cheese and seafood.

Barilla Bay oyster farm is located approximately 5 minutes from Hobart airport, perfect for you to have a fly by stop before your flight. The oyster farm is only one part of Barilla Bay, they also have a great restaurant and gourmet foodstore, specialising in Tasmanian produce. The building overlooks the oysters in the Southern Ocean waters, producing a great setting at dusk.

With more than 100 oyster farms in Tasmania, Barilla Bay is one of the larger oyster farms. The family operated business has been in the same location for 26 years and provides many of the local restaurants with their pacific oysters, in addition to many overseas clients.

Oyster farm tours

The Oyster farm tours operate at two times during the weekend, 12 noon and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday only. The tour is approximately 45 minutes and is shore based, which means you will not go out on boats to see the oysters in the water. It was windy and freezing cold when we went in April, so don’t forget to bring a coat and hat. The tour will take you out to the edge of the bay, where the oysters are in grown in racks and then into the processing areas for harvesting. It is an interesting tour, if you like these creamy, milky, gooey oysters, but it’s not for everyone.

Our guide told us many of the employees don’t eat them. In the processing area, they opened up a few of the oysters for us to taste. They were milky, creamy, salty and gooey in a good way. The expression on the faces of the people who sucked one down were pretty much pure exultation. Please sir, can I have some more? After the tour, we were treated to some more oysters in the foodstore. There were about 3 oysters per person and you could eat them natural, with some lemon or some Tabasco sauce. Delicious!

The foodstore has a wide variety of goods on sale, however they are not the cheapest prices. If you want a one stop shop of Tasmanian gourmet food, this is the place to go, but expect to pay a premium for this convenience. When we were there, there was wine tasting – there’s a huge wine selection, consisting of about half the store.

Barilla Bay restaurant

The restaurant is on top of the foodstore and has expansive views of the oyster farm. The menu is extensive and has a variety of options for vegetarians, non-seafood eaters at reasonable prices. The wine list is extensive; the service is un-intrusive and knowledgeable. We tasted every variety of oyster recipes, some of them were – Kilpatrick, camembert cheese and deep fried with seafood sauce.