Final days

Sept 3 Day 9


After our first night at Oakes Resort, Broome (they’ve been bitten by the Art Deco bug) we took a bumpy ride over the puny Pindas corrugations to the winner of many tourist awards, Willy Creek Pearl Farm. En route, we spotted a pair of Brolgas, birds in the crane family that perform a beautiful dance at mating time. See http://www.dreamtime.auz.net/default.asp?Page ID=54 for an aboriginal dreamtime explanation.

Whatever information was left out yesterday about pearls and pearling was filled in today. For instance the pearl meat I sampled is considered an aphrodisiac by the Japanese. (Can’t say I noticed those qualities myself, maybe I didn’t have enough!) It sells for $600.00 a kilo in Japan, $150.00 a kilo in Australia.

Here is the gist of what our guide told us about the creation of the Australian South Sea Pearls:

A South Sea pearl is produced by the Pinctada maxima mollusk. (I thought they said pink tartar)


Saltwater Nucleation In Pearl Farming

Two basic methods of nucleation are used. Saltwater oysters are generally nucleated using a "bead", prepared from mother-of-pearl. First, the bead is surrounded by a small piece of mantle tissue taken from a donor oyster. The bead and tissue are then implanted into the oyster's gonad. (ouch!)The bead serves as a nucleus, around which the pearl develops. The resulting pearl will contain the bead at its centre and will tend to develop in the same general shape as the original bead. The bead can be detected in the final pearl by x-rays.

Freshwater Mussel Grafting In Pearl Farming

Freshwater mussels (Willie Creek uses Mississippi mussels) are generally grafted using a piece of mantle tissue only, without a bead. This small piece of mantle tissue is placed into an incision in the host mussel's mantle instead of the gonad. Both sides of the valve can accept grafts, and an average freshwater mussel will produce 24 to 32 pearls per culturing cycle.

The oysters that don’t reject the bead (85%) are suspended in the salt water creek for 2 years, getting cleaned of marine growth every 3 weeks. (They use a lot of backpacker labour for these types of jobs.) These become the spherical south seas pearl.

Keshi pearls are formed when the oyster rejects and spits out the implanted nucleus before the culturing process is complete, or the implanted mantle tissue fractures and forms separate pearl sacs without nuclei. These pearl sacs eventually produce pearls without a nucleus.

Mabe (pronounced marbay) pearl is a hemispherical shaped pearl which is grown against the inside of the oyster's shell, rather than within its tissue. They are good for rings (I bought one of these in a ring at a shop near the resort) but obviously no good in a necklace.

Mother of Pearl in the oyster shell is used for guitar inlays, pearl handled pistols, in make up, car paint, the halogen on credit cards.

There are five important characteristics to look for in a pearl: size; shape; lustre; colour; complexion. Finding all five will cost you a bundle, but buying a pearl which gives you some of the five characteristics is more do-able. Which characteristics you are prepared to sacrifice depends on personal tastes and pocket books.

During free time in the afternoon, a few of us drifted into the famous Paspaley’s store. They farm 3 million oysters a year compared with Willy Creek’s 280,000. They also sell large pearls, nothing less than 3mm of nacre. That means big prices. We came, we saw, we didn’t conquer.

The day ended with yet another sunset watch, this time on Cable Beach, accompanied by champagne. We had our final dinner together at a nearby restaurant.

The next morning, (Day 10, Sept 4) after his day off, Bushie picked us up and took us to market. It reminded me of Byron Bay markets, a place where the local hippie types hang out selling their arts, crafts, clothes, home made candles, soaps, beads and silver. Not a large market but most of us were ready to board the bus for the airport well before the time of departure, tired out with the heat.

Broome airport is small and right in town. A new one is being constructed further out. The flight was an hour late, and we had to walk out on the tarmac up the steps to board. Another slightly famous Australian personality, the actor Gary Sweet went with us.

What did I love about this holiday? The rugged grandeur of the scenery; the vastness of the country; the warmth (although a few degrees less would be more comfortable); the wildlife (although I wouldn’t like to come face to face with many of them); the company, even the strangeness of Bushie.

Here are some ‘Bushieisms’ that didn’t make it in previous blogs: ‘fac silly me’ for facsimile and one I loved, ‘rudimental’ combining fundamental and rudimentary. Nutrients became ‘nutrigens’ and occupation ‘occupization.’

Am I being cruel? Maybe the guy has a problem with dyslexia, in which case he’s brave putting himself out there as a tourist guide/driver. But those constant references to ‘chicky babes’ queered his fate.

Thank you Bushie for a safe drive and thank you for providing me with some laughs at your expense.

Marie and Ray, the organisers of Thereabout travel did a great job with grace and fun to make our journey a memorable one.