As a dairy farmer’s daughter, the first holiday I ever had (apart from staying with relatives) was in the little Tasmanian town of Boat Harbour. With cows to milk every day we just never went on family vacations.
Beautiful Boat Harbour. (Source – getyourguide.com)
My seaside holiday was thanks to Laura and Geoff Clarke, parents of my schoolfriend Rosemary. The Clarkes generously took me along with their own four children in 1967. I was sixteen at the time and boarding in Ulverstone with them after starting my first job.
We stayed in the Eleanora Holiday cottages, which in retrospect were very basic, but so special in my mind. One of the highlights of that holiday was when Geoff Clarke prized some abalone from the rocks and prepared them for us. He bashed them with a hammer and sliced them into thin strips, which Mrs Clarke fried in butter. I thought they were wonderful, although perhaps it was just the novelty. I had never heard of abalone before.
I was intrigued to discover that the shellfish were once known as mutton fish, just as shearwater squabs were given the name mutton birds. It’s indicative of how ubiquitous mutton was in the early days .
MUTTON FISH RECIPE
In response to a request from a reader, I have obtained the following directions for cooking mutton fish from Mr Lewis, of the Fisheries and Game Department.
Remove the fish from the shell and clean away all the black adhering to the fish with a stiff knife. Put the fish on a block of wood and hammer with a wooden mallet, to break up the tissues, until the fish is a mass of pulp. As an alternative to the pulping treatment the fish may be minced very finely.Â
After preparing the fish, fry it in egg and breadcrumbs as you would a cutlet, or else fry it in a batter. Mr Lewis points out that unless the fish is carefully handled in the preparation stages it is most unpalatable. (News Pictorial, Mar 6 1933)
The shells have that mother-of-pearl iridescence.
‘Iridescent Abalones, with their line of graduated perforations are sometimes seen in Sydney jewellers’ shop windows as electric bulb shades‘. (Daily Telegraph, 31 Oct 1933,
Vintage Abalone Lamp (Source – Etsy)
Diving for abalone on a commercial basis was first mooted in Tasmania in 1954, by the Minister for Fisheries, Mr. John Dwyer.
Source – The Mercury, Sept. 4 1954,
Tasmania is now one of the main harvesters of abalone, particularly for markets in Asia, where it is eaten cooked or as sashimi.
Our best man’s son Michael Lovett became an abalone diver. His experiences were documented by author/photographer Paul Trapp in 2012.
Here is an interesting brooch by jewellery designer and crafter Emma Bugg, of Hobart. She combined pieces of abalone shell with concrete and added metal fasteners.
For more on preparing and enjoying the flesh of abalone, CLICK HERE
