By 1927, 4,600 leases around NSW were producing about £100,000 oysters a week, with output being sent to Victoria, South Australia & Western Australia, while New Zealand was also making enquiries. At the time, Pambula & Merimbula lessees were shipping about 40 bags a week.

 

The following year, it was reported that “A big impetus has been given the [local] oyster business …Thousands of sticks are being put out on the offshore areas, also large quantities of stone on the harder beds.”

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Initially output was sold locally, but after the turn of the century, lessees began sending their oysters away to market, originally mainly to Melbourne & then in the wake of the 1917 maritime strike, expanding to Sydney & other localities. By January 1918, most local lessees were supplying the Sydney market, although the Pambula Voice noted that they were getting much lower prices than they previously had in the southern capital. 

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Oyster farmers were now poised to become an inseparable part of the district's heritage.

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