For the first time last week, WRL had the opportunity to be part of the Perth Royal Show – WA’s most important and longest-standing community event. The Royal Show gave industry a unique opportunity to reach, connect and engage thousands of people to increase understanding and build trust in the western rock lobster industry amongst the community.
WRL’s booth was strategically positioned in the Farm 2 Food pavilion and simultaneously allowed us to demonstrate the high-quality standards of the fishery whilst providing an opportunity for the community to ask any questions about the industry directly to the fishers. Overall, the booth was an incredibly successful industry promotion initiative.
The Royal Show also provided a great opportunity for WRL to officially launch its Back of Boat new visual identity and brand-new backofboat.com website. This site has been created to help better educate the general public, including consumers and chefs, about the western rock lobster industry and the Back of Boat (BoBs) program. This initiative marks a shift from our primary promotion of BoBs becoming the website rather than the Back of Boat Facebook page, which will still be used in conjunction. The online ordering and payment system will be available on the website once it is up and running by December.
Overall, the feedback received about BoBs was extremely positive and reaffirmed the confidence in the initiative, while highlighting the importance of continued efforts to raise awareness within the community.
WRL’s exhibition included a daily cooking activity on the main stage by chef Don Hancey who provided cooking demonstrations where he barbequed lobster tails and provided delicious samples to the crowd to taste as well as samples of a pre-prepared bisque. During the show, he had fishers on stage and they talked about the fishery, sustainability, and the Back of Boat initiative.
We would like to thank everyone who supported us at the Perth Royal Show this year. Special thanks to Dr. Jim Penn (former Fisheries Department Research Director), Matt Watson (MSC’s Senior Fisheries Program Manager), Jessamy Bennett (Community Education Officer at DPIRD), and fishermen Fedele Camarda, Stephen Minutillo, Bruce Cockman, Clint Moss, Corry Amato and Peter Stanich who generously shared their time, knowledge and insights and helped us make our first Royal Show a big success.
Click here to see some photos from the Perth Royal Show 2022
