Condabilla Fish Information

Condabilla Fish farm is the largest inland aquaculture license in Queensland, owned and operated by Sundale Enterprises Pty Ltd. The property is based southwest of Chinchilla on the western edge of the Darling Downs, obtaining its water from the floodwaters of the Condamine River. The farm currently runs as a growout facility for fingerlings to market size fish. Plans to develop the farm first started in 1999, when family owned Sundale Enterprises (currently grain and cotton farmers in Queensland) purchased a bare property in Chinchilla. Rob Bartley is a farmer who has been employed by the family business for 12 years. Rob has been involved in aquaculture since 1997 and is a member of the Aquacultural Engineers Society and the Secretary of the Aquaculture Association of Queensland Inc. Construction of the first 3.3 hectare production pond began in August 2001. Within two years, a 0.6 ha pond was dedicated to research and development to allow the trial of a number of construction techniques and systems before larger scale operations were started. A second production pond of 5.5 hectares was started in November 2005 and its construction saw a huge lift in production capacity, with all ponds now producing fish. Nursery, quarantine and purging areas are well established and the farm is now heavily into the construction of its third pond, which will at least double the farms present capacity. The farm has a license for another 41ha of ponds, of which two 0.1 hectare hatchery ponds have also been constructed. By utilizing the latest production technologies from around the world, the main pond systems are based on the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS) from Clemson University, SC, USA. The system was originally designed for channel catfish overseas, but the system has been adapted for the native Australian species grown on the farm. Essentially PAS is a series of permanent concrete raceways set in a larger pond. The raceways contain the fish, allowing stock management, predator protection and water management to ...