History

Through careful resource management, industry best practice and a respectful partnership with Nature, Australia is today recognised as the source of the world’s rarest and most valuable pearls.
This is the story of the Australian pearling industry.

The Beginning

The cultured pearling industry is a young one – barely 100 years old. By contrast, divers have gathered wild oysters for their natural pearls for at least 4000 years.

History: Queen Elizabeth I in her pearls

Pearl fishing is thought to have begun in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Mannar. Pinctada radiata, the primary species of pearl oyster in these regions, produced fine quality pearls in small sizes, with rare exceptions exceeding 12 grains (approximately 8mm).

Historically, larger pearls from Pinctada maxima oysters came primarily from the Malay, Mergui (Burma) and Sulu (Philippines) archipelagos. Traders began bringing pearls from Sulu to India and the Middle East after Malaysia's adoption of Islam sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries AD. Pearls were traded from the Malay Archipelago for nearly 400 years.

When colonists discovered the pearl beds of the Caribbean and Panama around 1500, great quantities of pearls from the Pinctada mazatlanica oyster made their way to Europe. The trade in pearls from the Americas resulted in a period known among jewellery historians as ‘The Great Age of Pearls’, however by 1650, these shell beds were on the verge of extinction from overfishing.

The next great boom began when compressed air diving allowed access to the rich pearl oyster beds off the coast of north-western Australia in the mid-nineteenth century.

By 1910, Broome had become one of the most important pearling centres in the world, with nearly 400 luggers and over 3500 people employed in the fishery.

Natural pearls from the Australian Pinctada maxima – today known as the Australian South Sea pearl oyster – were soon recognised as the finest in the world, as noted by Kunz in his seminal text "The Book of the Pearl".

Such was the importance of natural pearls to the economy that in 1922, the Australian Government passed legislation prohibiting the culturing of pearls, to protect the natural pearl industry. This law remained in effect until around 1950.

As a result of a strict quota system that ensures that catches are maintained at sustainable levels, and the good fortune of an isolated and pristine environment, Australia now has the world's last significant beds of wild Pinctada maxima oysters.

Australian South Sea pearls are now cultured using a process that mimics the natural cycle as closely as possible. Important natural pearls are still occasionally discovered and due to their rarity they can command extraordinary prices.

The Modern History of Pearling

1860-1890s

Commercial pearling commences in Australia

With the discovery of the world's richest pearling beds off the Western Australian coast, Broome quickly rises to become a main source for one of the most important industries in northern Australia. With over 100 pearl luggers operating out of Broome, it provides 75% of the world’s mother-of-pearl. In 1875, The Pearl Fishery Regulation Act is implemented to control the taking of pearl shell, and by 1890, the fishery spans from the coasts of Shark Bay to Thursday Island.

North Western Australia

1890

Beginning of the cultured pearl era

British scientist William Saville Kent conducts experiments in Thursday Island in an attempt to replicate natural South Sea pearls. The technique for producing spherical cultured pearls is eventually developed and patented by Nishikawa and Mise in Japan.Image courtesy of langantiques.com.

Thursday Island

1893–1905

Mikimoto pioneers the cultured pearl industry

Mikimoto opens his first shop in Tokyo’s chic Ginza district in 1899. After years of persistent research, Kokichi Mikimoto becomes the first person to succeed in the commercial production of fine quality cultured pearls in 1905, and over the next thirty years the Japanese Akoya industry grows to 350 pearl farms.

Japan

1932–1935