Oyster farmers across the Hastings are looking forward to a promising season after rebuilding following the March 2021 flood that wiped out a large percentage of stock and damaged equipment.

Related content:

Owner of Tunstead Oysters on Port Macquarie's North Shore, David Tunstead, said it took farmers months to rebuild following the devastating flood.

"The rebuild from the flood back in March was massive. It took two months for the water to fully disperse," he said.

"And it was about eight weeks before we could get back in the water.

"Everything was floating through the shed and we spent a number of weeks tidying up equipment and finding our things in other people's paddocks."

The oyster farmers situated on Sandfly Alley came together to help each other recover from the flood.

"There were about a dozen boats out on the river at one stage helping find equipment," Mr Tunstead said.

The flood caused a loss of stock for a number of oyster farmers. Mr Tunstead said they experienced around a 20 per cent mortality rate.

"We have been pulling them out of the river and sorting through all of the oysters to try and salvage any that didn't die," he said.

"We're just starting to get on top of that now, so it's taken us around seven months."

The story has been similar further south at Laurieton. Owner of Armstrong Oysters, Brandon Armstrong, said their entire season was impacted last year.

"We were hit the hardest we've ever been by the March flood. We lost a lot of infrastructure and oysters," he said.

"The ongoing rain prior to the flood in Match also impacted our season and we pretty much lost the Christmas and Easter period."

They were also impacted by a number of river closures.

"Oysters go out of season around April and we lost that chance earlier this year during the season," Mr Armstrong said.

Oyster farmers are now preparing for the busy Christmas period, with harvesting set to begin in the coming weeks.

Mr Tunstead said the growing conditions for oysters post flood have been quite good.

"We've had a little bit of rain which creates some turbulence in the water which oysters like. Conditions of the oysters have also improved from 70 per cent to around 85 to 90 per cent."

Conditions are set to improve through until Christmas.

"We opened for a few days last week and sold out really quick. I think there are a lot of locals that are keen to help our farmers out."

"It is predicted to be a wet summer, but we can deal with bits of rain and hold the oysters we do harvest, but it's the floods that hit us hard."

"Hopefully there won't be too many river closures between now and Christmas and we'll be able to get out on the river and harvest."

As Hastings oyster farmers prepare for the Christmas rush, Mr Armstrong said they are looking forward to the upcoming season.

"We're getting ready to start harvesting in early November. We're excited to be producing high quality oysters and the season should run through until Easter next year."

"It's coming at the perfect time with the state opening up again and people being able to travel again."

"We're hoping there will be a high demand over the next few months."

This sentiment is echoed by oyster farmers in Port Macquarie.

"The oysters farmed on the Hastings River have a unique taste because it's a unique river to farm in," Mr Tunstead said.

"We're in for a good year this year and we encourage the community to come over to Sandfly Alley when we're open and support our local oyster farmers."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: