Last autumn, I toured up the Western Australian coastline, the outback and into the Northern Territory.  Geraldton, one of the towns along this coastline, about four hours north of Perth, plays a major role in the west’s commercial fishing industry and is famous for its Western rock lobster, known to us as crayfish. 

It was here in Geraldton that we experienced the wonders of fresh local Abrolhos Island crayfish.  In the words of Stephanie Alexander ‘Truly fresh seafood is one of the simplest and greatest luxuries.’  And we did enjoy this simple luxury for 4 days!  We were very privileged as one of our party had an old friend living in Geraldton who had direct contacts with the local Cray fishermen.  He provided us with fresh Abrolhos Island crayfish for the duration of our four day stay.  To cook our crayfish, we kindly put them to sleep in the freezer, then cooked them on the barbeque, in pots of boiling water and enjoyed them in their purest form, with salad, wine and beers.  It was heaven.

If you don’t have an obliging friend to supply you with freshly caught crayfish, you just need to pop down to the Fisherman’s Wharf and into Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-Operative where you can tour the facility and also buy crayfish caught that day. 

The tour is most entertaining, ultra informative and spectacular featuring endless rows of crayfish, held in 488 tanks filled with fresh sea water pumped in from the ocean. These tanks are efficiently managed to ensure that the lobsters remain close to their natural environment until they are shipped to customers around the world. When full to capacity the value is $6 million.  The crayfish are brought in by boat, sorted by hand, their colour and size determining which tank they will end up in.  Most are exported to all over the world, with different countries preferring different sized crayfish.  The ‘Brolos’ Live Western Rock Lobsters are exported alive; they are put to sleep by immersion in freezing cold water, packed into wooden boxes layered with pine shavings and shipped off immediately arriving in Japan within 36 hours.  The frozen whole raw ‘Brolos’ Western Rock Lobsters are gently placed in an ice slurry and are blast frozen in state of the art snap freezers.  This ensures that the sashimi grade crayfish retains its full flavour and texture.  An amazing Australian industry.