Rotarian club member Robert Stringer has a passion for practical sustainable living. He and Mary’s Heidelberg home is a wonderland of examples including a very productive permaculture garden and aquaculture setup. It was aquaculture that provided the topic for Robert’s most informative talk at last Wednesday’s club breakfast meeting.

It’s pretty simple really …

Robert likes to use trout fish. The only problem is they don’t like warm water, so get replaced with a warm water tolerant species like goldfish over summer. He grows taro, water cress, water chestnuts and arrowroot in his aquaculture garden.

And, as a bonus, he harvests the fish when they grow to sufficient size.

Robert harvests about 12 fish per year.  The setup costs about $70 pa for fish food and $70 for fish fingerlings to restock the fish tank.