Jeff’s Straddie Oyster Life

From Building Sites To Oyster Farms

It wasn't a career change Jeff had planned. "I'd pretty much had enough of the construction game over on the mainland, so I decided to come out and give a good friend a bit of a hand with his new oyster farm," Jeff explains.

His friend had purchased Straddie Oysters, and, after barely a week helping out, Jeff started looking at things differently. "I decided this oyster gig seems all right," he laughs. The pair crunched the numbers and Jeff bought half of the business.

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Greg started the business in a small boatyard before moving into what he describes as "an old tin shed" at the dealership's current site. Since then, the business has steadily expanded to keep pace with demand. New showrooms, a dedicated display yard and a purpose-built workshop have transformed Sportsmarine into a destination for boating enthusiasts throughout Western Australia's South West.

Over the years, Greg also fulfilled another ambition by establishing his own boat brand, Assassin Boats, further cementing Sportsmarine's reputation as one of the region's leading marine businesses.

Today, customers can choose from leading Australian boat brands including Cruise Craft, Extreme Boats, Senator, Sea Jay and Greg's own Assassin Boats, all supported by Yamaha outboards, WaveRunners and genuine aftersales service.

Greg says partnering with Yamaha around 15 years ago was one of the defining moments in the dealership's history. "Partnering with Yamaha has probably been one of the greatest things this business has done," he said. "The Yamaha brand has given us such a good experience."

That partnership extends beyond simply supplying outboards. Sportsmarine also offers Yamaha WaveRunners and supports Yamaha's PowerMatched program, with Cruise Craft and Sea Jay packages engineered at the factory to perfectly integrate Yamaha outboards with each hull.

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Patience is equally important. A rock oyster takes around three years to grow from microscopic spat to something ready for the table. That long production cycle presented Jeff with one of his earliest business lessons. "When we first bought into the farm, we had a target of producing 20,000 dozen oysters per year," he says. With three years' worth of oysters growing simultaneously, that would require around 60,000 dozen oysters on the farm at any given time. "We worked out pretty quickly that the target of 20,000 dozen a year was just out of our reach."

Instead of chasing volume, Jeff changed direction. Straddie Oysters reduced its target to around 10,000 dozen annually, allowing the business to concentrate on supplying North Stradbroke Island locals who have enjoyed oysters from Moreton Bay for generations. It has helped create the boutique operation Jeff wanted rather than attempting to compete with large-scale producers who are harvesting more than 100,000 dozen oysters each year.

Central to everything is the water in which the oysters grow. Jeff describes the waters surrounding North Stradbroke Island as among the cleanest on Australia's eastern seaboard. Oysters are filter feeders, meaning the relationship between farming and the health of Moreton Bay is inseparable. "The more oysters that we have in the water, the cleaner the bay gets," he says. 

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That environmental responsibility extends throughout the business. Solar energy is used at the processing yard and, when the time came to repower the farm's workboat in 2021, Jeff chose a Yamaha four-stroke. "For us to be able to do everything that we do, we try and do it as cleanly as possible," he explains.

Jeff says the 60hp Yamaha uses 66 percent less fuel than the larger two-stroke it replaced, while reliability and low maintenance are equally important. "To have something that just starts every time, runs clean and has minimal maintenance is really key for us to make sure we're not dirtying up the bay unnecessarily."

With in excess of 400 hours showing at the time of our visit and servicing carried out religiously every 100 hours, Jeff says the Yamaha has never let him down.

For a former builder who knew almost nothing about oysters five years ago, life has certainly changed. "We live in a pretty magic spot," Jeff says. "There's a top speed of 80 kilometres an hour, two roundabouts and no traffic lights. "It's quite an awesome place to be."