It is one thing to bring growers from Nowra to the border together to celebrate their industry.

After all, uniting to market their products is a smart business move.

However this festival is about so much more than that.

To capture the public imagination and enthusiasm the way the festival has done in recent years is a huge achievement.

To take the festival to its present sophisticated level on the food stage, drawing chefs from Melbourne and Sydney, without losing its grassroots feel, is no mean feat.

Watching it grow year after year must be so satisfying for those with their collective shoulder to the wheel - exhausting as it must be.

The festival is a genuine community and family event, balancing an army of volunteers with a professional approach.

It is an event the whole shire can be proud off and get behind.

It was exiting to see familiar faces from either end of the shire enjoying the theatre of the shucking contests, the heavyweight oyster face-off and the cookery classes.

It was even more exciting to approach strangers to have their photos taken only to find they had travelled from long distances to enjoy the event.

The Wagonga Inlet was the perfect backdrop for Saturday's bustle, the Friday night fireworks and the music on both days.

Putting on a huge festival such as this is a risky business, as organisers knew last year when high winds forced the cancellation of the Friday event.

The weather smiled this year, with the rain holding off almost to the end.

Oysters are important for more than economic reasons in our shire.

They sum up what makes us special. They rely on clean water and the forested catchments that keep our estuaries so.

These ancient shellfish are the canaries in the coalmine for the Nature Coast.

A thriving oyster industry relies on all of us preserving those estuaries.

We can all come together on that - and get a great feed at the same time.

Each year, the Indigenous presence has grown at the festival - yet another reason to be proud.

See you next year.