COL Beasley is scaling new heights with his innovative Murray cod venture, SARAH HUDSON reports

Before its numbers went into rapid decline, the Murray cod - with its yellow-green, marbled markings - was a trophy fish, prized by anglers in eastern Australia.

It was, however, not the best to eat, its river-bottom foraging lead to an acquired, muddy taste.

Until now, that is.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Red Cliffs' Col Beasley, a pioneer in the Murray cod aquaculture industry, the fish is now a delicacy on the menus of the best restaurants, from Stefano's in Mildura, to Thailand, Japan and throughout Asia.

"In Hong Kong they rate Murray cod on a par with Patagonian toothfish, which is $120/kg," Col says.

"Our fish is purlescent white, with no lines or marks and is beautiful to eat. You can fillet it, eat it battered, spiced, steamed, any way. I had it as a banquet fish in Thailand.

"And I don't normally like sashimi but I had it raw in Japan and liked it.

"Cod can be a bad word because it covers a whole lot of fish and Murray cod has always had muddy connotations. That's why we market our fish as Murray Gold."

Murray Gold, which markets at $23/kg, is the ingenious product created by Col with help from the Department of Primary Industries.

Traditional Murray cod aquaculture is based indoors, which generally causes the flesh to turn dark.

Col's product uses indoor systems for fingerlings, or baby cod, which enables him to monitor diseases and bacteria.

When they reach 100g in size, the fish are then transferred to outdoor dams that have a feeding system, designed and patented by Col, which ensures they feed from the top, clean part of the water.

At 1kg in size they are sold, which can take between seven and 12 months: "they are fast growers".

The truly innovative aspect, though, is that these dams are primarily used for irrigation, on his 330ha farm where he grows grapes, avocados, olives, almonds and cereal crops.

This dual-purpose concept first developed when Col travelled to Israel in 1996 to scout ways to make the most of his irrigation systems.

"Things were getting tougher with horticulture and I was wanting to get the best use out of the water," he says.

"I found every farm (in Israel) had a fish farm on it. They were better than us by miles in technology and water monitoring.

"They live in a desert and are forced to look at multiple ways to use water because they pay for it before they use it. It was extraordinary."

Col initially started farming golden perch and Atlantic salmon but discovered they died when the water hit 21C, a level reached about Christmas time in Red Cliffs.

Murray cod seemed the perfect alternative and now he says the popularity of the fish has skyrocketed.

"The demand for Murray cod is twice that of salmon and trout at the moment. We have not got a hope in hell of keeping up with demand, domestically and overseas," he says.

In fact, Col is calling for local irrigators to join his Murray Gold brand, which has been developed with the help of the DPI, to ensure continuity of supply, even offering $14,000 starter kits.

"Supply is the issue now so we're inviting growers to join us as shareholders and they can benefit from the marketing," Col says.

"In this area alone there's 51 dams over 100 megalitres. If we get the use of dams right across the Murray Darling Basin we believe there's room for up to 5000 tonnes of fish with a guaranteed selling price.

"The aim now is to get as many people interested in it as possible."

  • Murray Gold cod is available at Racovolis fish stand at the Victoria Market. If you are interested in joining Murray Gold, phone Col on 0427 502 982.