Vale Ian Cameron – a down-to-earth entrepreneur

Ian Camron, the founder of Cameron of Tasmania, the nation’s major supplier of Pacific oyster spat and the producer of arguably Australia’s finest live oysters, has passed away. He was 89.

Ian will be forever remembered as an icon and pioneer of the shellfish aquaculture industry in Australia.

And while Cameron of Tasmania is now part of Yumba Aquaculture, its connection with the Cameron family remains. Ian’s grandson Ben is General Manager of the business, granddaughter Ellen is Manager of Nursery Operations and Ian’s son Graeme specialises in the company’s hatchery business. Little wonder then that Ian attributed his business success to ‘employing the right people’. 

Throughout, he was encouraged and supported by wife and life partner, Barbara.

In the early days, Ian Cameron’s entrepreneurial influence in Tasmania stretched well beyond oyster farming. At around 20 years of age, he gave up his cadetship with the Hydro Electric Commission and took up poultry farming on a small property bought by his father at the end of World War II. 

By the 1970s, under Ian’s management the fledgling enterprise comprised three poultry farms, providing no less than 50 per cent of Tasmania’s total egg production.

While Ian’s success grew, so too did his commitment to diversifying his business interests, which ranged from hotel ownership to the farming of deer, emus, flounder, clams, mussels and, of course, oysters.

It was an overseas study tour under the Churchill Fellowship that provided the inspiration for Ian to invest in oyster production. By 1985 he had establish a highly successful hatchery at Boomer Bay on the outskirts of Dunalley, and in September the following year, apart from meeting domestic demand for oyster spat, Ian was exporting up to 5,000,000 spat to China.

However, during its growth and development, Cameron of Tasmania experienced more than its fair share of trials and tribulations, although nothing was to prepare it for two catastrophic events within three years of each other – the mammoth bushfire that engulfed Dunalley in 2013, followed by an outbreak of Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) in 2016, which threatened to bring the business to its knees.

Under the leadership of grandson Ben, Cameron of Tasmania moved decisively to counter any future risk presented by POMS by establishing a joint venture hatchery in South Australia in partnership with Yumba.

It was a highly successful business strategy which ensured Ian’s remarkable heritage lives on today.