The 1950s and 1960s were halcyon days for oyster farmers on the Georges River, as well as lovers of the seafood they produced.
Pictures in the Leader’s archives show bountiful oyster leases of dozens of growers, some of whose families had been on the river for three or four generations.
Norm Pilgrim, the president of the association for many years, features in several of the old photos.
For three decades, the Pilgrim family operated an oyster cafe on the beach at Sandringham, which attracted people from all over Sydney until it was destroyed by fire in the mid-1960s.
The area has a long connection with the oyster industry.
Hidden among mangroves on the edge of Gwawley Bay, there remain today remnants of the nation's first commercial oyster farm – a massive undertaking of 48 kilometres of canals, constructed in the 1870s by Chinese workers from the goldfields for Colonial Treasurer Thomas Holt.
The halcyon days disappeared in 1976 when a massive sewage overflow into the river, caused by heavy rain, resulted in oyster farming being shut down for four months.
A research scientist from the UK provided an answer in the form of purifying tanks with ultraviolet steriliser, where oysters were placed for 36 hours before going to market.
When the ban ended, the Leader reported, “Luscious, purified, 100 per cent contamination free Georges River oysters are back on the market”.
“More than 50 Georges River growers now face the mammoth task of recapturing NSW and interstate markets they enjoyed before the devastating ban last July,” the report said.
“For all of them, the lifting of the ban came only a few weeks before they faced inevitable financial collapse.”
The Georges River industry recovered, but in 1995 was hit by the QX virus.
Oyster farming was banned from the river and most leases were abandoned.
Bob Drake, the local association president for 20 years, and his brothers Bob and Len, were the only operators to continue in Botany Bay.
In 2010, the POMS (Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome) virus hit and nearly wiped them out too, but they found a solution to stay in business.
In 2012, Bob Drake sold his business to the present owner Bob Hill.
Mr Hill, of Endeavour Oysters, along with adjoining business Wetland Oysters, was forced to vacate his site on the edge of Woolooware Bay last year so the land, which was contaminated by coal tar during earlier practices, could be remediated.
Mr Hill has continued to operate his business from the water, and is waiting to learn whether he will be able to return to the site when the work is completed.
