Pearls are exquisite organic gemstones that have been
cherished and sought after throughout history. Some of the most dazzling pearls
in the world are the South Sea pearls and especially those that emerge from the
sparkling, clear turquoise waters around Broome in Western Australia. The
history of pearling in Broome really began when the large, pearl containing Pinctada
maxima oysters were first found in Roebuck Bay in 1861. These are very large oysters, with some of
them being as big as dinner plates, and back then they were harvested for the
mother of pearl lining to their shell rather than the pearls that they
contained, and within a very short time Australia was producing around 75% of
the world’s mother of pearl. Any natural
pearls that were found were welcomed as an extra bounty from the sea. The newly founded town of Broome was to
become the centre of this emerging pearling industry and South Sea pearls were
initially called ‘Broome Pearls’.
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| Pearl Luggers, Broome |
In the early days of
diving for oyster shell and pearls, before there was any specialist diving
equipment, young Aboriginal men and women were used to do the diving and they
had to dive naked which led to their being known as ‘skindivers’. They dived
for the oyster shells in water that was up to 12 metres deep, without any
oxygen, masks or snorkels, and with absolutely no protection from dangers like
sharks. Many of these young Aboriginal people had been rounded up and forced
away from their families and were held in very harsh conditions, and certainly
did not receive very much reward for their dangerous labour. Their brutal treatment and the dangerous
diving that they were forced to do, led to the deaths of many of these young
Aborigines, and this slavery continued until the oyster beds in the shallower
waters had been almost completely denuded due to over harvesting and equipment
had to be introduced that allowed diving in deeper waters.
It was the introduction of this specialist diving equipment
that really caused the boom of the oyster shell fishing industry. The invention of diving suits made of
vulcanised canvas, with heavy boots weighted with lead, and huge bronze
helmets, meant that the divers could go much deeper than before, and could
spend more time on the sea bed enabling them to collect more of the precious
shells. The pearling boats or ‘pearl luggers’ were mainly owned by white
Europeans known as Pearling Masters, but with the advent of diving suits the
divers themselves were no longer Aboriginals, but were mainly Japanese
men. Most of these Japanese divers were
indentured labour. They owed a debt,
usually the cost of their passage to Western Australia, and dived for shell to
pay off that debt and hopefully earn some money to take home to their
families. However, the Japanese divers were
paid by how much oyster shell they could collect, and accidents and fatalities
were common, so very few of the divers ever did manage to pay off their debt
and return home. There are reports that say that as many as 50% of the Japanese
divers died, with shark attacks and the bends or decompression illness being major
causes of death. Another cause of death and injury for the divers and crew of
the pearl luggers was the unpredictable Australian weather, and whole fleets of
pearl luggers were destroyed by cyclones while at sea.
The pearling industry in the seas around Broome boomed in
the early years of the 20th century, and by 1910 there were
approximately 400 pearl luggers and 3500 people involved in fishing for oyster
shells in the pearling industry. Broome was a thriving and rowdy frontier town,
with a vibrant, multicultural population comprising of Aborigines, Europeans,
Malays, Chinese, Filipinos and Japanese.
When the pearl lugger fleets returned to shore after weeks at sea, much
of the crew member’s hard earned cash would be spent in the taverns and eating
houses that thronged around the docks of Broome. In 1922 the Australian government became very
worried that the new development in Japan of producing cultured pearls was a
potential risk to the market for natural pearls, and banned them from being
produced in the waters of Western Australia. But by the 1930s there was a
severe danger that the Pinctada maxima oysters were going to disappear due to
over harvesting of the oyster beds. Diving for pearls and shell virtually ceased
during the two World Wars, and in the 1950’s the development of plastic
buttons, cutlery handles and ornaments substantially lowered the demand for
mother of pearl, almost destroying the pearling industry in an instant. The ban on producing cultured pearls in
Australia was overturned in 1949 and this was what proved to be the saviour of
the pearling industry and the pearling industry was buoyed up by the
introduction of cultured pearls in 1956 by a joint Japanese-Australian company
called Pearls Proprietary Limited at Kuri Bay some 420 kilometres north of
Broome.
The production of cultured pearls in Australia grew over the
following decades and these days 60% of the world’s South Sea cultured pearls
come from the pearl farms sited in the seas around North West Australia. These
South Sea pearls are renowned for their size, lustre and colour, which can
range from pure white through creams, pinks, silver-white and gold. The average
size of a South Sea pearl is around 12mm, although there have been pearls
produced that are as big as 20mm. Cultured pearls are created by seeding an
oyster with a spherical piece of foreign material such as shell. This bead then acts as an irritant and
encourages the oyster to coat the sphere in a thin layer of nacre which builds
up slowly over time. The hope is that when the oysters are harvested after a
couple of years, the pearl farmers will find an abundance of very high lustre,
completely round and flawless pearls, although the reality is that on average
only about 20% of the harvested pearls will be flawless. The overall high quality
of Australian South Sea pearls, however, is such that they do not have to be
tinted, dyed, bleached or skinned. They
are just removed from the oyster, cleansed of salt and accumulated debris and
graded for sale; their soft, glowing beauty needing no further embellishment.
There are many showrooms in Broome displaying beautiful jewelry made from
Australian cultured South Sea pearls, so go and wander around Paspaleys,
Linneys or Willi Creek Pearl Farms showrooms to find your perfect pearl
necklace, earrings, ring or bracelet. If
you want to find out more about the history of pearl diving in Broome, spend
some time at Pearl Luggers or if you want to see where it all happens go on a
trip to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm.
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| Willie Creek Pearl Farm, Broome |
So what is the future of the pearling industry in
Broome? Unfortunately, the ongoing
global financial crisis has dramatically cut the demand for South Sea pearls,
which has led to the pearl growers in Western Australia stopping pearl seeding
and production of pearls has fallen by about 40%. To produce a pearl the oyster
shell has to be maintained in favourable conditions in the water for about two
years, which is an ongoing investment in time and money. The pearl farms have
done this to cut costs and survive, but the worry is that if demand for South
Sea pearls suddenly goes up due to an improving worldwide financial picture
that the pearl farms will not be in a position to produce enough pearls to
satisfy the market. But Broome and the pearling industry have survived many
catastrophes and unfavourable world events in the past, and will hopefully go
on producing these beautiful pearls from the sea for us all to enjoy.
