A Brief History of Pearls
South Sea Pearls
A Brief History
The history of Australian South Sea Pearls is a long one, although the modern pearl industry is barely 100 years old.
Divers have gathered wild oysters for their pearls for over 4000 years according to history. Around the 1500s pearls made their way from the Caribbean to Europe creating “the Great Age of Pearl”.
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.
It is said to have been as early as 1906 that there was an Australian Pearling industry but it only began to grow from the end of the World War II in 1945. Real success commenced with the establishment of the Australian Cultured Pearl industry in the mid 1950s, after a meeting of parties from three countries who had an interest in creating two areas to be “protected culture” projects. This was under the Diamond Policy that stipulated that there was to be a limited quota and the pearl technique be kept secret. At this time all the pearls were marketed out of Japan.
This changed again in the 1970s when a new venture outside the Diamond Policy allowed markets to sell their own pearls for the first time. With the advent of new modern diving apparatus and the development of onboard saltwater tanks, techniques enabling live oysters to be transported from the pearling ground to other locations were created, allowing expansion of the industry.
In the 1980s to preserve wild shell stocks, the WA Government initiated the Pearl Industry Review quotas of pearl oyster fishing. The Pearl Producers Association (PPA) was formed, and includes a Pearl Divers Safety Committee operating according to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) guidelines.
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.