Broome Pearling History
The Kimberley
It is hard to imagine that the real wealth from the Broome pearling industry came from the Mother of Pearl, rather than the pearl itself, and finding a pearl was simply a bonus in an extremely hazardous job.
When Pearls were discovered in Roebuck Bay and along the banks of Eighty Mile Beach in the 1860's, it came from the oyster Pinctada Maxima, otherwise known as the giant North West Pearl oyster. The shell was huge in comparison and the inside had a shimmering interior which set it apart form anything else.
By the early 1870's the Pearl Masters were arriving into Broome and Broome quickly became the pearling capital of the world. The divers were mostly Japanese from the Taiji province, but there were also Chinese, Islanders and local Aboriginals donning the canvas suits and massive bronze helmets. By 1910 there were almost 400 luggers and more than 3,500 people diving for the shells, spending hours under water scooping oysters into bags as the divers were being weighted down by lead boots.
Around the time of the First World War, plastics were being used for buttons, buckles etc in replacement of shell products and the price of the Mother of Pearl shell dropped dramatically. By the late 1930's there were only 73 luggers pearling in Broome, and by the time of the Second World War pearling virtually stopped. During the war the Japanese bombed Broome and a lot of the remaining luggers were destroyed.
Diving for pearls was an extremely dangerous job and there were many horrific deaths from the bends, cyclones and sharks. Evidence can be seen of this in the Japanese Cemetery where there are over 900 graves of Japanese people, mostly divers, with unique headstones crafted out of coloured beach rocks.
Today there are tour companies in Broome that specialise in the Broome pearling industry, from experiencing the pearling ways of the early pioneers to being shown how pearls are cultivated in modern pearl farms.