No small fry

LOCATED next to the Botanical Gardens, just of Gillies Street, lies a particularly unique building housing centuries’ worth of swimmers.

With the rustic inside a combination of fishing tools and commemorative registries, each wall of the Ballarat Fish Hatchery is indicative of their over 150 years’ service to the community.

President Shane Jeffrey said the drive and endeavour of its volunteers is what’s kept the hatchery afloat over a century-and-a-half.

“They’re passionate and highly committed to making sure it continues to work. Dedicated is definitely the word,” he said.

Since its founding by the Ballarat Acclimatisation Society in 1870, the group stocks over 80,000 fish per year, maintaining their place as “the oldest hatchery in mainland Australia.”

Both brown and rainbow trout are grown in-house into yearlings before being sold to farmers and landholders for either recreation or food.

The hatchery is unique in that they provide both species, and Mr Jeffrey said brown trout is normally harder to come by for most other places.

Serving his second term as president, Mr Jeffrey is “a relative newcomer” in a group consisting of around 40 volunteer retirees.

“This operation is very labour intensive so we welcome all people that have got the time to put into being a volunteer,” he said. “We’re always looking for more.”

The hatchery provides for a regular customer base year-round, including Victorian Fisheries Authority and an annual donation of 6000 brown trout to Lake Wendouree in what Mr Jeffrey calls “our gift back to Ballarat”.

The hatchery looked to celebrate its 150th anniversary over 2020, but the onset of the pandemic halted these plans.

Celebrations would have included a re-enactment of the original stocking of Lake Wendouree, with period-accurate costumes loaned by Sovereign Hill.

“That was a big event for Ballarat. But unfortunately, we’re not sure if and when we’ll be able to actually do it,” Mr Jeffrey said.

“We may have lost the moment given it was a couple of years ago now.”

Sales are currently suspended in order to safeguard some of the more vulnerable volunteers, and the hatchery will discuss its reopening at their next committee meeting later this month.

Until then, future bookings can be made via phone appointment.

On the lasting appeal of the hatchery, Mr Jeffrey said it is the relationships he has built with fellow volunteers that he holds most fondly.

“I love working with fish, that’s what attracted me to the hatchery,” he said.

“But having that camaraderie and mateship between everyone coming together is what I love most about this place.”

Mr Jeffrey said he hopes the hatchery will remain for another 50 years so it can celebrate its 200th anniversary.

“I probably won’t be around by then,” he said