OYSTER-CULTURE IN AUSTRALASIA. 569 



Dr. James C. Cox, the President of the New South Wales 

 Fisheries Commission, has recently directed notice to this 

 oyster as well worthy the attention of oyster-growers, in face 

 of the diminished supply, through disease, of the common rock 

 variety. The time, it may be anticipated, is not far distant 

 when this valuable suggestion will be practically acted upon. 

 Doubtless, too. New South Wales possesses a sufficient popula- 

 tion of epicurean tastes able and willing to pay tlie higher 

 price that superior cultivated oysters of this description should 

 command in the market. 



Queensland. 



So far as commercial value goes, Queensland is at present, 

 like New South Wales, exclusively dependent on the rock variety, 

 Ostrca glomerata, which may be said to attain to its maximum 

 development in both quantity and quality in the Moreton and 

 Wide Bay districts of the colony. The species is so profusely 

 abundant in the areas indicated that large consignments, above 

 those required for home consumption, are exported to New 

 South Wales and Victoria. The disease which has so seriously 

 depleted the fisheries of New South Wales has not as yet 

 affected the Queensland beds. This immunity from affection 

 is probably attributable to the circumstance that the Queens- 

 land oyster-fisheries are chiefly located in bays and channels 

 in close proximity to the open sea, from whence, even after 

 heavy floods from the tributary rivers, they are speedily re- 

 vived by an inflow of sea-water. Jealous care will have, never- 

 theless, to be taken by the Queensland authorities to preserve 

 these tributary streams as far as possible from pollution by 

 chemical or other noxious works, which, if allowed to increase 

 to any considerable extent, cannot fail to exert a very delete- 

 rious effect upon both the oyster and all other fisheries of the 

 bays into which the rivers flow. Artificial oyster-culture, with 

 the exception of one or two small experiments, has been so far 

 carried out in Queensland waters on the simple lines only of 

 transporting the young brood or ware, locally known as 

 " cultivation," from one locality, and laying it down on ground 

 where it will develope more speedily to maturity. The amount 

 of brood available for this purpose is so abundantly produced 

 throughout the areas of Wide Bay and Moreton Bay, in 

 southern Queensland, as to satisfy all present demands with- 

 out the necessity of resorting to the more elaborate European 

 methods of culture. This, at any rate, holds good with the big 

 oyster companies and other proprietors of extensive oyster- 

 grounds to operate upon. There can be no question, however, 

 that the numerous smaller proprietors, having but a limited 

 water-frontage at disposal, could, at a trifling outlay, greatly 

 increase their oyster-crops by the employment of suitable col- 



