Some people think oysters are just for eating. Those people never met Jill, the family ‘pet’
Bernie Connell, a retired oyster farmer from Batemans Bay, mourns the death of Jill, his record-breaking Pacific oyster and family 'pet,' who recently won Australia’s biggest oyster title for the second time. Jill, recognized by the Australian Book of Records as the heaviest oyster, survived extreme environmental conditions but succumbed after years of freshwater floods and post-festival handling. Though Jill fell short of the Guinness World Records due to her shorter length, she remained a source of pride and local rivalry.
- ▪Jill the oyster weighed 3.01 kilograms and was named Australia’s biggest oyster at the Narooma Oyster Festival for the second time.
- ▪She was recognized by the Australian Book of Records as the world’s heaviest oyster but did not qualify for the Guinness World Record due to her lack of length.
- ▪Jill died after surviving years of environmental challenges, including the 2020 Black Summer aftermath and repeated freshwater flooding in the Batemans Bay estuary.
- ▪Bernie Connell has won the 'Australia’s biggest oyster' title every year at the Narooma festival except 2022, when his rival Kirk Hargreaves won with an oyster of equal weight but greater length.
- ▪Connell suspects that excessive handling during post-festival celebrations may have contributed to Jill’s decline.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","dateModified":"2026-05-01T05:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-05-01T05:30:00Z","description":"Oyster farmer Bernie Connell breeds them big. But Jill was special, and a disrupter in her small town.","headline":"Some people think oysters are just for eating. Those people never met Jill, the family ‘pet’","keywords":"Marine life, Farming, South Coast, Growth Content, Just in","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bronte…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Sydney Morning Herald.