The woman known as the "Winx" of oyster shuckers has taken out the Narooma Oyster Festival shucking title.
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Greenwell Point's Sally McLean claimed the 2021 title, opening 30 oysters in 3 minutes 11 seconds.
It's the second time in the three years the event has been held that Sally, from Jim Wild's Oysters, has claimed the coveted award.
She was the inaugural women's champion in 2018, had to settle for second in 2019, while the 2020 competition was cancelled due to COVID, which led to the whole festival actually being called off.
Lining up at the weekend's event for 2021 she was determined to regain her champion's crown.
"It's great to be champion again and bring the title back to the Shoalhaven and in particular Greenwell Point," she said.
"Absolutely stoked I won."
Sally, who is the daughter of former multiple Australian oyster opening champion Jim Wild, who also had the fastest time in the world in 1984, went into the final as the fastest qualifier.
She opened 20 oysters in the heats in 2 minutes 11 seconds.
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"I knew I was in with a pretty good shot," she said.
"But just had to back it up in the final."
While speed is, of course, important, presentation also plays a big part in the competition.
"It can come down to the presentation of the oyster in the shell," Sally said.
"For instance if there is any signs of blood at all you're instantly disqualified."
She finished just ahead of Sue McIntyre, of Broadwater Oysters at Pambula Lake and Pip Boyton, of Merimbula Gourmet Oysters.
"It was pretty close," Sally said.
"I finished and Sue was close behind, but I looked over and saw she had left one oyster unopened unfortunately and I knew I had the win in the bag."
The judges comments summarised Sally's win beautifully..."Sally is from the esteemed Jimmy Wild stable and came into the competition in top form. Unlike many elite shuckers, Sally doesn't have a particularly long stride but rather her success has been attributed to a freakish cadence that allows her to open oysters with speed, efficiency and hallmark style - this means she can settle or accelerate at any time during a race."
And she's determined to defend her title again next year.
The men's title was won by Dennis Gerard, of Batemans Bay.
She admits oyster farming is in her blood.
"I've followed on from Dad. Our farm gate is literally at Greenwell Point, we farm in the Crookhaven and Shoalhaven rivers," she said.
"I suppose you could say it's in the blood."
She said while it was nice to again be crowned oyster shucking champion, the Narooma festival plays a much more important role, of highlighting and showcasing the oyster industry on the South Coast.
"The festival was great," she said.
"It was said it was the biggest ever - there were between 6000 and 7000 people and apparently they went through something like 70,000 oysters.
"It was great - it wasn't just the oyster growers, there were wineries, breweries, other stalls, live music.
"A fantastic day out and one you should all book in on your calendars for the first weekend in May.
"We [the farmers] also had fun but we were also able to get together as farmers and just talk about the industry and growing our oysters."
The industry has certainly had a tough time, especially of late as massive floods inundated most of the state.
"The industry here in the Shoalhaven is back open now which is great and we are able to sell our oysters again," she said.
"We were closed for around four weeks due to the flooding. We have sent tests away to undertake our meat and water samples to make sure everything is right.
"But some of the other estuaries, like the Hawkesbury still aren't reopened.
"In all my time farming, I have never seen the whole of NSW estuaries close.
"And it could not have come at a worse time - we had no oysters for Easter which is our second busiest time of the year."
The first flood after the horrific 2019-20 bushfires also saw the local estuary closed for eight weeks.
"We couldn't harvest because there was that much ash and debris in the river," she said.
"As oysters are filter feeders we had to wait until we were right to again reopen.
"But thankfully we are back on track now, we just don't need any more floods."
Locally, there are more than a dozen oyster farmers in the Shoalhaven and Crookhaven river estuaries, who either sell from farm gates or provide to bigger markets.
And further down the coast the industry is just as strong along the Clyde River, at Narooma, Merimbula and Pambula.