Australia's First Trout Farm - Established 1958

"Buxton Trout & Salmon Farm was set up in the late 50’s by Frank Parkes. There was no commercial farming of trout in Australia at that time and he was instrumental in having the legislation changed and began the trout industry as we have it here today. In the early  60’s a New Zealander, Trevor Baynin, took over the farm. Then in 1979 my step-father became the owner. I, with my wife Deb, have been here since 1988 and in the mid 90’s we developed the 5 acres of parkland you see today. It’s a lovely spot for people to visit, picnic and of course, catch fish.

 

It is a self sufficient farm – we do all of our own breeding, hatching, growing, processing and value adding which we distribute through wholesale fish markets throughout the country. Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns - as well as to local restaurants and wineries of The Yarra Valley and many other places throughout Victoria. Mountain Ash Smoked Trout and Hand-Milked Caviar are our two specialty products.

 

We hatch up to one million rainbow trout, brown trout and salmon eggs each year and we supply fingerlings for anglers restocking programmes. In the last 5 years we’ve supplied 1,000,000 (200,000 per year) fingerlings to Lake Eildon for the Rex Hunt FutureFish program. Rainbow Trout are not only a highly sustainable but also environmentally friendly source of natural, healthy food. High in Omega 3 oils trout have great heart health benefits which includes reducing the risk of death by heart attack, stroke or heart disease.

 

We grow approximately 80 tons of fish per year, the majority being for the wholesale and restaurant market and the rest for people who come fishing here. The fishout lakes and streams cover some several acres and are surrounded by tall gum trees.  There are a variety of different ponds including large trout (500g -4kg), medium trout (300g-500g), Atlantic salmon (2kg-5kg) and a challenge lake (lightly stocked). Our friendly staff are more than happy to help you catch a fish, and will clean your fish and pack it on ice for you to take home, free of charge.

 

Our smoked trout are cooked over a mountain ash fire in a traditional method and are considered by many chefs to be the best in Australia.

We used to have a Dutchman that lived over the road who was a third generation eel smoker. He was probably the first person to commercially smoke trout in Australia back in the late 1970’s. He taught us how to build and use a woodfire smoker for the trout and salmon. It still works very well and we can do 200kg or 600 fish in around 5 hours. We use Mountain Ash as this wood burns very quickly and doesn’t leave any coals so it is great for smoking fish. 

 

Our Caviar is hand milked when the fish are ripe around mid May. Being hand milked from live fish we can produce some of the highest quality caviar on the market. By gently hand milking the fish only when they are fully ripe and the egg completely formed means the caviar will pop on the roof of your mouth with an explosion of flavour. The eggs are cleaned and nicely separated, then lightly salted using time honoured methods to give a distinctive taste. We are one of the only farms in Australia which uses this method.

 

It’s a great experience to see kids catching their first fish here and now they’re coming back 30 years later with their kids so it’s nice to see the trend continue."

 

-Mitch MacRae, Owner