Broome Pearling

Saturday 27th June
I woke up this morning thinking "Thank goodness the weekend is here and we can relax", but by the end of the day I found that we didn't even have time to go fishing.
First up we had to go to the Saturday market to get more of those frozen fruit things (that's what they are called "Fruit Things"), then we called in on Bill and Louise (from Baranduda) before going to the Pearl Luggers to learn a little bit more about the history of Broome which goes hand in hand with Pearling. The tour guide had to speak fast to fit all the information into the allotted time but we learned a heaps and saw a lot of pearling equipment. Alexander was even allowed to try on one of the pearling helmets - see photo.
Every year a lot of men lost their life either during cyclones or by getting the bends from pearl diving. Most of us think that Pearling is about shiny (and expensive) little while balls strung around a girl's neck, but back then pearling was about the Mother of Pearl which was used to make buttons (for garments) prior to the invention of plastic in the 1950's. In the early days the Pearlers harvested this particular Oyster from the ocean floor and every now and then they found a pearl in one, but that was only "By-catch" which just happened to be rather valuable.
After the introduction of plastic the market for Mother of Pearl shrank significantly and the fleet of over 400 Pearl Lugger pre World War 2 was never ever re-established.
However, the Pearling industry soon changed into growing pearls commercially on Pearl Farms - tomorrow we will visit Willie Creek pearl farm.
We also had a look at the associated shop where one could buy a pearl necklace at the bargain basement price of $29,900, but for those that wanted something special there was a 22mm diameter pearl worth in excess of $100,000 - needless to say, I didn't buy either.
After our Pearl Luggers visit we had a late lunch and then headed to the Broome jetty to admire these colossal tidal movements before returning to Bill and Louise to exchange more fishing stories and a have BBQ to end the day.