The terrain of southwest Victoria is home to some of Australia’s best and most abundant produce. Dormant volcanoes are planted with vines, eels swim in crater lakes and the bush is a ‘supermarket’ stocking ever y thing from wattleseed to warrigal greens
“The only problem I have with eel these days is using a knife and fork — Iwant to use my hands,” says Jayden Lillyst. “It feels more natural.”
I take his lead and hold a segment of smoked eel between my thumb and forefinger. The skin peels away with ease, leaving dehydrated, salty flesh. It ’s hardy and intense, a ribbon of brittle fish ‘crack ling’: a desirable, crunchy addition. A longside it on the tasting platter are creamy eel pâté and arancini flecked with smoked eel — the latter a more subtle introduction for first-timers.
Here, in the cafe of the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre, a four-hour drive from Melbourne, in southwest Victoria, eels aren’t the only local speciality on the menu. Other dishes incorporate river mint, lemon myrtle and kangaroo. Known as the Volca nic Lakes and Plains region, this corner of Australia is the third-largest volcanic plain in the world, and its nutrient-rich soils connect ancient Aboriginal food culture with the produce served in the reg ion’s restaurants today.
“Ngatanwarr wartee pa kakay teen Gunditjmara mirring,” says Jayden as he starts our tour, before translating: “Welcome, brothers and sisters, to Gunditjmara countr y.” The Gunditjmara, of whom Jayden is one, are the traditional landowners of this area, which is now part of the UNESCO-listed Budj Bim National Park.
The Gunditjmara have been living off the land and waters here for millennia. Budj Bim, or Mount Eccles, last erupted 37,000 years ago, with the lava forming basalt rises and chiselling out ponds that the First Nations community used for storing eels and other fish. It ’s said to be the world’s oldest aquaculture system. Canals connect each pond, which are sometimes cut off from one another and the nearby lake during drier seasons.
Tae Rak, also known as Lake Condah, was severely disrupted when European settlers installed drainage channels in the 1880s and 1950s, but recent restoration and conser vation initiatives are returning it to its former g lor y. The Aquaculture Centre stands on the shore of Tae Rak, where families of black swans and downy grey cygnets paddle between swarms of mating dragonflies, while wedge-tailed eagles gracefully assess intruders from above. The centre’s cafe currently sources its shortfinned eel from bodies of water in nearby towns, but once the fish population here has returned to pre-European densit y, it will come from lake to
