• ABOUT US

A-Culture Holding Pty Ltd (‘A-Culture’) was established specifically to address an environmental negative, Riverland saline water, and turn it into a positive, by producing premium seafood products in a clean and green environment. Something that is under increasing demand globally.

Our environmentally sustainable Waikerie Aquaculture Project has the capacity to change the face of aquaculture in Australia. It will establish a unique multi species intensive indoor recirculating aquaculture system (OZRAS) facility in the Riverland of South Australia. The facility will make use of saline water from the vast local underground aquifer, helping to address the environmental damage that can occur when saline water is allowed to enter the Murray -Darling Basin.

A-Culture is creating an intensive indoor facility to produce consistently high quality seafood and deliver it fresh to local, national and international markets.

Using saline ground water also means fish can be produced in a pristine bio secure environment that is not susceptible to temperature and weather fluctuations. This will allow A-Culture to deliver high quality seafood all year round.

The project has the support of the District Council of Loxton Waikerie and Regional Development Australia. The South Australian Government also considers the project a much needed economic opportunity for the Riverland region, exploiting what is essentially a waste water resource. The next stage in the project is to build a prototype production facility on our site at Waikerie, to trial OZRAS efficiency’s which will involve growing Yellowtail Kingfish and Asparagopsis seaweed for CH4 Global.

  • Experienced Team

    A-Culture is an experienced team of business leaders.

  • Partners and Suppliers

    We have high quality business partners and suppliers.

  • THE OZRAS SYSTEM

    A purpose designed system for filtering and recirculating water.

  • Environmental Focus

    Multiple environmental benefits will be realised.

  • Location Secured

    A 50-hectare greenfield site near the Riverland town of Waikerie.

Meet Our Executive Team

John Henderson

John Henderson – Managing Director

John Henderson is the Managing Director of A-Culture Pty Ltd and an Adelaide based construction company. John possesses extensive experience within the building and engineering industry with over 30 years building and managing successful construction services businesses across South Australia.

John’s expertise in this arena will be leveraged in the development and construction of the flagship site to ensure timely and efficient delivery of the facility in line with the business’s long-term strategic goals. John has dedicated the last four years to the study of recirculating aquaculture systems currently used around the world.

These studies have focused on methods to adapt and improve on current practices specifically focusing on higher efficiency to support lower operating costs and an increased rate of return compared to existing facilities. The result is the new OZRAS system. Upon the establishment of the flagship facility John intends to resign from directorship of his building company to focus solely on the operation and long-term strategic growth of the aquaculture business.

Richard Forgan

Richard Forgan – Project Co-Ordinator

Richard has had a wide range of business experience spanning over 55 years. His career began in the agricultural sector managing a 20,000 sheep property in outback NSW where he gained farm management and animal breeding experience. He went on to take a position with the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) in London where he was part of the team which developed the successful global ‘Woolmark’ pure new wool project, exposing him to project design and implementation, project management, marketing, advertising, PR, sales promotion, and product research.

On returning to Australia, Richard established a marketing planning consultancy firm before joining a leading Adelaide stockbroking firm where he managed the financial planning division and became a partner in the firm. As Project Co-ordinator Richard has dedicated the last 8 years to co-ordinating the
development of the A-Culture project to its current status. This has included writing the business plan and identifying and securing the scientific and farm management team. He has formed close relationships with the relevant state and local government agencies and prepared and successfully negotiated the planning application and environmental approvals for the project site and the initial aquaculture licence

John Carragher

John Carragher – Scientific Adviser

Following a degree in Marine Biology and a PhD in Fish Physiology, John’s career started along the academic pathway, with research and teaching appointments at Brunel (UK), Auckland (NZ), Deakin (Vic) and Flinders Universities – the latter two positions related to aquaculture. Much of John’s academic research was determining how stressors affected growth, reproduction and product quality of farmed and wild caught seafood products and he has over 40 publications in this area.

However, over time John has become more interested in applied research, holding positions with AgResearch (NZ) and SARDI and now operates as a consultant to the seafood industry stakeholders. John now helps seafood producers and processors by delivering approaches, processes and technologies to improve the production and marketability of quality seafood products locally, nationally and internationally.

Projects have included: assessing the quality attributes of Port Lincoln farmed tuna in the famed Tokyo fish market; determining the shelf-life of yellowtail kingfish and using modified atmosphere packaging technology to prolong the shelf-life of live pipis and farmed greenlip abalone, permitting diversification of markets and increasing the value of the product.

Bryn Lyon

Bryn Lyon – Farm Manager

Bryn has been involved in the aquaculture industry for the past 19 years. After graduating from Challenger University of Technology with a Diploma of Aquaculture, he has worked continuously with Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in Australia and overseas, growing both finfish and eels.

During that time he has worked as production manager, maintenance manager and farm manager of a
number of farms. Consequently he has developed significant experience in general management, fish handling in recirculating systems, record keeping, monitoring growth rates, production fish health and water quality parameters. Bryn has also been involved in the construction of RAS facilities. These include, in Australia a state of the art 200 tonne per annum RAS for the production of Murray Cod.

In Madagascar he was involved in the construction and management of a 400 tonne per annum facility producing African Eel for export to Europe and Asia. There he trained and managed a team of local people in production techniques and the operation of the RAS system. As well as the aforementioned experience Bryn has also had extensive experience in the maintenance and operation of filtration, pumping and oxygen generation equipment – all of which is fundamental to the maintenance of water quality in a RAS facility.

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