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PEARL CULTURE INTRODUCTION
The history of Broome Pearling has been one full of high's and low's and after World War 2, it was at a particularly low point. Luckily, a demand for cultured pearls developed, no doubt as the economy picked up, and this revival bought about the development of the first pearl culture farm in Australia in 1956.
It was established at Kuri Bay, 420km North of Broome, by a joint venture between Australia and the Japanese. The Kuri Bay venture was formed under the name, Pearls Pty Ltd, and consisted of Male and Co, Broome Pearlers Brown and Dureau Ltd, and the Otto Gerdau Co of New York. The Nippo Pearl Co. of Japan handled distribution and marketing. Tokiuchi Kuribayashi was the principal of this company and was the most powerful and influential man, since Mikimoto's death, in pearl culture. Kuri Bay was therefore named after him.
By 1981, there were five established pearl culture farms in the Broome region- Kuri Bay, Port Smith, Cygnet Bay, and two in Roebuck Bay.
It is well worth noting, at this point, a little about the history of pearl culture which began in Japan. The first known attempts were in the 13th century, where crude semi-round pearls were the result. Tatsuhei Mise (1880-1924) produced the first round cultured pearl before 1904. Tokichi Nishikawa (1874-1909) became the first person to produce a round cultivated pearl from planned experiments using tiny gold and silver nuclei.
Kokichi Mikimoto (1858-1954) is the man we most associate with Japanese
cultured pearls. However his method of depositing nacre from graft mantle
tissue has proved too delicate and difficult. The method used by the cultured
pearl farmers today, is based on T.Mise's basic requirements for the spherical
pearl production which is:
a) A spherical nucleus.
b) The introduction of the nucleus into the connective tissue of the oyster.
c) The nucleus must be inserted along with a piece of mantle epithelium.
In 1922, the Pearling Act inserted section 113 which prohibited anyone in
Australia producing artificially cultivated pearls. Luckily, this was repealed in
1949, thereby opening the doors for the development of today's pearl culture
formed in W.A.
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