Fishy Business by John Faulkner Extract
- Allen & Unwin
- Sep 22
- 5 min read
Read an extract from Fishy Business by John Faulkner.
For millennia, the Aboriginal people of coastal Sydney lived in harmony with the natural environment. Fishing and shell fishing were a way of life. Everything changed with the arrival of the First Fleet. Fishing quickly became important to the European colonists. The place where the fisherman's catch was sold also became important - and colour and controversy were never far away from Sydney's markets.
From Woolloomooloo to Redfern, Haymarket and Blackwattle Bay - with its new world-class facility - the Sydney Fish Market has become an institution. Its history is filled with larger-than-life characters, political machinations and shady dealings, as well as the incredible success stories of hardworking families, many of whom arrived in Australia as migrants from Europe and Asia.John Faulkner, a former senator, has been passionate about the Sydney Fish Market for decades. His many years of speaking with its people and recording its rich history are brought together in his book Fishy Business.
In the extract below, John Faulkner takes you on a tour of the market floor and vivid describe what it’s like to be there in the early hours.
Morning auctions today run, literally and metaphorically, like clockwork. Nearly all the produce arrives overnight in large trucks, usually semitrailers. Around 11 per cent of the product sold at the auction comes straight from Sydney Airport— the vast majority imported from New Zealand. By 3 am the small team of market floor staff are busy. After forklifts unload the product, it is electronically processed. Every box of seafood is individually labelled. Supplier, quantity, weights, species and other details are recorded to appear later on the market’s jumbo-sized screens during the auction.
Market staff supervise the placement of all seafood into five bays on the auction floor. The bays are tagged alphabetically, A to F, with Bay E lost somewhere along the way. There are separate bays for finfish from North of Sydney (A) and South of Sydney (B). Lobsters and crabs are held in Bay C. Prawns and other crustaceans are in Bay D. The sashimi bay (F) displays tuna, marlin and swordfish.
Rules apply to every person who enters the auction hall. High-vis vests and steel-capped shoes must be worn. Food and drink are strictly forbidden on the floor. The rules are accepted and observed.
The auction is conducted from a podium directly below the three screens displaying the auction clocks. (There is little surprise that the clocks are also designated A, B and C!) Opposite the podium is the tiered seating of the buyers’ stand, where buyers sit after checking out the offerings on the floor. In case a buyer misses the commencement of the auction of product from a designated bay, a buzzer sounds. Following the practice of the world famous Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, a bell is rung when the tuna auction begins.
At 5 am sharp, the market auctioneer opens proceedings. His first words, doubtless uttered many hundreds of times, are formulaic: ‘Good morning, buyers. Highest bidder shall be the purchaser. Bays are open for inspection prior to commencement of sale. Fish is put up with all faults, if any.’ He then informs buyers what product will first come up for sale on the three auction clocks. A clear warning about food safety and hygiene follows: ‘As a member of the HACCP System, basins are provided at the entrance for your use. If you are going to handle cooked product, please use sanitary stations provided at the front of the podium.’ After a warning that the sale prices on the clock don’t include GST, the auction begins.
The auctioneer establishes a starting price based on recent sales data, then the clock begins counting down. Every seat in the auction stand has a digital buying terminal. Buyers hit a button marked A, B or C to purchase a lot on one of the clocks. Another button is pressed to select the number of boxes— from one up to fifteen— that the buyer wants. Sale completed, the clock resets before continuing to count down. As the auction progresses, ‘wheelers’ with their hand trolleys remove purchased seafood from the auction floor and load it into vehicles in the car park.
By 6 am the market car park is jam-packed with vans and small trucks ready to ferry seafood back to specialist shops, supermarkets, restaurants, clubs and other outlets. Wheelers work quickly. Most are contracted to five or six buyers. A final scan and check of electronic labels is made by market staff before the wheelers can leave the auction floor.
All seafood is moved on and off the floor through a gate monitored by market staff. Concrete barriers on three sides and the auction stand on the fourth prevent any unauthorised removal of product. Chillers, freezers and an ice machine that produces six tonnes of ice a day are installed outside the barriers. In the crate yard over a million fish crates are washed every year.
Market facilities share space with wholesale tenants. A tiny corridor is crammed with fish crates, pallets, boxes awaiting despatch and offal bins. Expert forklift drivers manage to manoeuvre with miraculous precision. By 9 am the wholesaler’s work back of house is done. Seafood is heading to its next destination. The huge coolroom doors are closed, premises locked, offal and refuse removed.
By the time the final sale is made, most buyers are gone. Any seafood remaining is put on ice. Then a thorough washdown of the auction floor begins. The daily clean-up is undertaken by staff covered head to toe in personal protective equipment. Heaven help any stray bacteria. Four hours later, the job is done. The auction floor is deserted until product arrives through the night for the next morning’s auction. The pattern of the market doesn’t change. Public holidays excepted, the fish auction is conducted every weekday of the year.
Extracted from Fishy Business by John Faulkner.
Fishy Business
by John Faulkner
Richly illustrated and entertainingly told, this is the complete and fascinating history of a beloved Sydney institution by passionate patron and former senator
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