Description of the attraction
About 45 minutes from Hobart are Salmon Ponds, the most famous and oldest hatchery in the southern hemisphere. It was founded in 1860 and since the late 19th century has been one of the popular picnic spots with residents and visitors of Hobart. Around the ponds, there is a wonderful garden in the style of traditional English, in which there is a roughly hewn old house - it was in it that the factory was located. Here you can learn many interesting facts - for example, how difficult it was to transport salmon and trout caviar from England 150 years ago, walk through an old building and look at fish pans. By the way, fish can be fed in the ponds themselves - trout and salmon are still found here.
It is interesting that, despite the name Salmon Ponds, trout is found here in the absolute majority, and not salmon at all. The fact is that salmon is a migratory fish, it spends most of its life in the sea, and only to continue the genus does it return to the river to lay eggs. When they built this plant and ordered the first batch of caviar from England, it was believed that after the salmon was released, it would return to the Derwent River. Several attempts were made, but for unknown reasons the salmon released into the sea never returned. However, trout, bred and raised with salmon and not a migratory fish, quickly spread across the lakes and rivers of Tasmania.
Another attraction of the Salmon Ponds is the Trout Museum, incredibly popular with fishermen of all stripes, with a fascinating collection. The exhibits of the museum clearly demonstrate the changes that have taken place in fishing equipment over one and a half hundred years. Here you can see fishing reels, fishing rods, types of lures and other devices for fishing. In the museum itself, you can buy books, souvenirs and themed things.
