James Brown is chuffed. Comedian Shaun Micallef mentioned Cygnet Bay – Brown’s pearl farm in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley – on his ABC TV show, Mad As Hell. “Cygnet Bay is now a destination,” grins Brown. “And Broken Bay has the same kind of prospects.”
The 40-year-old Brown, whose family have been growing South Sea pearls since the 1950s, is sinking the family fortune into NSW’s only pearl farm, Broken Bay Pearls – which cultivates pretty white, yellow and blue Akoya pearls – and opening it up to tourists.
It’s a bet that Australia’s east coast can develop an Akoya pearl market as vibrant as the west coast’s South Sea pearl market, which has been going since 1956 and is dominated by the Paspaley family.
Source: Australian Financial Review
