The History of Pearling in Western Australia
Pealring began in Western Australia in the 1850s at Shark Bay, where natural pearls were found in the Pinctada albina oyster.
When the larger P. maxima oyster, which produced superb pearls (called South Sea pearls) and top quality mother of pearl (MOP) shell, was discovered in areas north of Nickol Bay, the industry spread along the north west coast during the 1880s. By 1910, nearly 400 luggers and more than 3500 people were fishing for shell in waters around Broome, then the biggest pearling centre in the world.
The divers were mostly Japanese from the Taiji province. Their diving ritual would often begin by downing a bottle of port, before donning their cumbersome vulcanised canvas suits and massive bronze helmets, after which they would be lowered over the lugger's side to spend hours underwater.
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On the bottom they struggled about in lead-weighted boots, often almost horizontal as they peered through inch-thick faceplates into murky waters, frantically scooping oysters into bags because divers were paid by the amount of shell they collected. The early luggers were sail-powered and only catered for one diver's apparatus, but by the 1930s, most vessels were motorised and mechanical air pumps allowed two divers per boat. The death toll in the early pearl industry was horrific, from the 'bends', cyclones and sharks.
Pity the diver on the bottom when his lugger was smashed by one of the four cyclones to catch the pearling fleet at sea between 1908 and 1935. The death toll for these is only approximate but it is known that more than 100 boats and nearly 300 men perished, and are commemorated at the Japanese cemetery in Broome.
As a frontier town full of trading, thieving, racial mixes, booms and busts, Broome has a rich store of legends which make histories of the place good reading.
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However around the time of the First World War the price of the MOP shell which sustained the industry plummeted as new plastics were used for buttons, buckles and other shell products. By 1939 only 73 luggers and 565 people were left in the industry and during the Second World War, pearling virtually stopped. Japanese divers discreetly went home or were interned and Broome was bombed, destroying many of the remaining luggers.
After the war, anyone who had known Broome in its roaring days would hardly have known the place, and a mere 15 boats on average worked the fishery, employing around 200 people.
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Little of early days remains - a couple of luggers, a few historic buildings on new sites, rotting jetties, the Japanese cemetery of gracefully calligraphed stones, the modest but absorbing museum and a few helmets, now valuable artefacts and integral parts of pearl shop displays. The advent of cultured pearls pumped the industry up again and a Kuri Bay pearl culture farm, Pearls Proprietary Ltd, was established in 1956 as a joint Japanese-Australian venture. One of the industry founders, G.S. Streeter, had actually tried culturing pearls in the 1890s by drilling tiny holes in the shell and inserting MOP beads, but such was the alarm about possible effects on the local industry that the State government banned artificial pearl cultivation until 1949.
Meanwhile, back in Japan, Mr Mikimoto pursuing his dream of having every woman in the world wearing a pearl necklace, continued to sell shining mountains of cultured pearls internationally while developing culturing techniques and production to a fine art.
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