A Hatchery For New Ideas And Our Trout Industry

The Age

Sunday October 15, 1995

Jim Wharton, Alan Leake

Derek Falconer.

Former manager of the State Fish Hatchery at Snob's Creek, Victoria. Born: Melbourne, 9 March 1919. Died: Eildon, Victoria, 17 September 1995, aged 76.

DEREK Falconer was instrumental in the outstanding success achieved by the salmonoid industry in Australia and overseas since the 1950s.

In 1954 Falconer was appointed manager of the State Fish Hatchery at Snob's Creek. During his time at the hatchery Falconer became the fountainhead of all practical knowledge of high-density and economic trout culture in Australia.

The hatchery was founded to raise brown and rainbow trout to be released in the streams and lakes of Victoria.

In a short time the hatchery was overrun with visitors, including some notable fish scientists from abroad.

Many people came with the idea of copying almost everything the hatchery did, and making money as fish farmers: Snob's Creek ran live-in and day courses for these hopefuls and for Government employees from other states who operated hatcheries.

By the early 1960s the hatchery was considered a remarkable success by those interested in trout cultures and fish management.

Rainbow and brown trout were produced by the million.

The first successful dry-foods for trout had been produced, and copied widely. The hatchery identified and controlled previously unknown fish diseases. It developed new methods of taking eggs and sperm from trout for artificial fertilisation, which were copied overseas, and employed new ways to hatch eggs and rear the young.

Falconer played a vital role in all these things.

He had had a rocky time before coming to the hatchery. At the outbreak of World War II he had applied to join the RAAF but was rejected on medical grounds. He was later found to have developed tuberculosis during his first year of agriculture studies at Melbourne University. He spent the next 10 years in and out of the Austin Hospital and was unable to work full time. In the early 1950s he became a photographer with the then Fisheries and Game Department, and was among the best and most knowledgeable photographers to work there.

But he did not just take photos. He also repaired scientific equipment, watches, jeeps, cars, boats - anything that the department could not have repaired in Melbourne or, in some cases, overseas. He had a sort of magic touch with metal and machinery.

Falconer's appointment as manager of the hatchery was greeted with much enthusiasm, but no one could have guessed what a wonderful influence he was to have on the fortunes of the hatchery and the ultimate success of trout culture in Australia.

Falconer had a great interest in trout fishing (at which he was extraordinarily good), but no experience in staff management when he arrived at Snob's Creek. There were no manuals explaining hatchery jobs, and the procedures and equipment were still evolving.

Falconer had to train young men to do things with fish for which nothing in their previous experience could possibly have prepared them. He succeeded far beyond any reasonable expectations.

After Falconer retired from Snob's Creek in 1981 he continued as a consultant to the fish feed industry.

Falconer is survived by his wife Wendy and children Jan, Rod, Andrea and Catherine.

© 1995 The Age

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