Tasmania is known for its world-class oysters. Now one of its shuckers is heading overseas to fly the flag.
Zoe Jacobson has become the first woman to represent Australia at the World Oyster Opening Championships in Ireland after winning the John Susman Medal at this year’s national competition.
Jacobson, who manages and is the sole oyster shucker at 42 Degrees in Dunalley, will head to Galway in September to take on the world’s best.
She started straight out of school as an oyster packer at a factory in Sorell, where the shuckers she worked alongside inspired her to pick up the craft.
“They were superstars to me, they were superheroes,” she told Pulse.
With no room for her on the shucking table, she taught herself after hours, copying what she had watched the experienced shuckers do during the day.
“I’d wait till they finished their day and then I’d go in there, into the shucking room and start training myself from what I’d seen and what I’d learnt from these guys,” she said.
After stints at oyster farms in Dunalley and Eaglehawk Neck, Jacobson returned to shucking and won her first competition at the 2023 Wooden Boat Festival as the only female competitor.
That performance earned her an invitation to the Narooma Oyster Festival in New South Wales.
Jacobson said she had always finished in the top five at the nationals but had never made the podium until this year, when she was named best shucker across both the men’s and women’s fields.
“Not only did I place, but I won the John Susman Medal, which is a huge honour,” she said.
In the finals, shuckers must open 30 oysters as fast as possible and present them neatly.
Penalties apply for mangled meat or grit, and cutting yourself means instant disqualification.
In Galway, Jacobson will face the famously tricky native Galway Flat – a species closer to Tasmania’s native Angasi than to the Pacific oysters she shucks at home.
Last year’s Australian champion did not reach the top three.
Jacobson said the win was still sinking in.
“It’s absolutely crazy and I’m still pinching myself in disbelief,” she said.
She hopes her success draws more people into the trade.
“There’s not many of us around anymore, so let’s hope we can inspire more people to get stuck into it and learn this trade,” she said.
