Melshell Oysters – Introduction
Melshell Oysters is one of the surprising Tasmanian hidden gems. As you drive along the beautiful East Coast A3 highway, just north of Swansea you will see a sign pointing to this place and you divert along a country road that follows a sand spit culminating in dunes lining the spot where Kings Bay meets Coles Bay.
There is a sign on the A3 east coast highway just near the turn off onto Swan River Road. Drive along this road for a few hundred metres and you will see a turn off to the right. There is also a sign on this corner pointing to Dolphin Sands. Turn-off onto Dolphin Sands Road and stay on this road until you see the sign to Melshell.
Here you will find a caravan selling oysters that are freshly shucked and that have only been out of the water for a very short time. You buy some oysters then sit at a table on the dunes, relax and enjoy the briny gems while looking over the waters from which they were plucked.
Melshell was established many years ago (in 1984) by Don and Anne Melrose (which is where the name comes from) at Dolphin Sands which is a “shack” community. In Tasmania there are many seaside “shack” communities which are used by the owners for a relaxing time in their holidays – the go to the shack! At Dolphin Sands these shacks line the sand dunes next to Great Oyster Bay where some of the oysters plots are situated.
On the northern side of the road is the Swan River which is also used by the Melrose family to raise the oysters. The sand dunes next to the Swan River is where you will find the blue caravan where you can buy oysters to either take away or to sit at the tables provided.
It is well worth the detour as you can see from the picture of the oysters below.
And you also get a very nice view looking through to the Freycinet mountains.
This photo above shows the Swan River side of the narrow isthmus occupied by Dolphin Sands.
Additional information
Name: Melshell Oysters
Street: Yellow Sandbanks Rd
Suburb: Dolphin Sands, 7190
Telephone: +61 3 6257 0269
Opening hours: Mon – Fri, 10am – 5pm
You can read about Melshell on their Web site here.
We have included Melshell in our story about places to eat at on the East Coast of Tasmania.
