Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre & Café

On the shores of Tae Rak (Lake Condah) in south western Victoria you will find one of the oldest and most extensive aquaculture sites in the world. The Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre & Café houses a kooyang (eel) holding tank as well as a retail space and a bush tucker café. The signature dish is the Kooyang Tasting Plate which can be bought on site. The centre is a tourism hub where Gunditjmara people share knowledge and stories in a sustainable way, allowing them to continue caring for their Country and culture. It was built to strengthen and maintain the Gunditjmara community’s connections to the traditional practice of kooyang (eel) farming and smoking for future generations. Here, visitors can join Gunditjmara guided cultural tours of the World Heritage listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, and learn how Gunditjmara people worked with the natural resources and environment of the Victorian southwest region to establish a permanent place of human society over the past 30,000 years and beyond. Commercial activities such as guided cultural tours of the landscape and the sale of smoked kooyang on tasting boards to visitors will help keep Gunditjmara people working on country sustainably, and consistent with the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape values.