BROKEN BAY PEARL FARM: A Little known business operating from a tiny shed in Brisbane Water estuary is producing some of the best cultured pearls in the world. Read more: https://bit.ly/2CloU48
Published by the Central Coast Express Advocate.
Pearls of Australia MD James Brown talks about the unique wonders that make the Kimberley, home of Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, the perfect breeding ground for the world’s largest and most valuable pearls.
– Australia’s remote north-western Kimberley coast, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the sapphire waters of the Indian Ocean, is home to the giant Pinctada maxima or silver-lipped pearl oyster shells that produce the finest and highly-prized Australian South Sea Pearls.
Australia is the only country in the world that uses wild oyster stocks. To ensure its sustainability, the pearling industry operates on a government-regulated quota system that sets a maximum number of wild stock pearl oysters that can be caught each year from the Eighty Mile Beach, south of Broome in the state of Western Australia. These wild pearl oyster beds represent the last wild commercial fishery for Pinctada maxima oysters in the world.
There are currently 15 wild stock pearl oyster licence holders, but the majority of licences are owned by Paspaley subsidiaries. As Paspaley Group of Companies’ Executive Director, Peter Bracher tells IPS, “Our wild pearl oyster quota is hand-collected by our divers. This is an environmentally friendly and sustainable form of commercial fishing that causes no damage to the seabed and produces no wasteful by-catch. Elsewhere in the natural habitat of Pinctada maxima, which includes much of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the wild oyster populations have been depleted by overfishing.”
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Australian pearling companies have been conscious of the need to protect the oysters’ habitat as there is a strong co-relation between Kimberley’s pristine environment and the production of high-quality pearls.
“The nutrient-rich Kimberley waters, in which our pearls are farmed, are our most valuable asset and monitoring their condition forms an integral part of our operations and management. We have opened our infrastructure and expertise to the academic world and established the Kimberley Marine Research Station to encourage independent marine research and to help bridge the indigenous cultural knowledge with scientific knowledge, which we believe will help in our attempt to ensure our production practices are sustainable,” says James Brown, the third-generation owner and managing director of Cygnet Bay Pearls, the first all-Australian owned and operated cultured pearling company.
Being an extractive and extensive form of farming, pearl oyster aquaculture is one of the most environmentally sustainable industries. Oysters are voracious filter feeders drawing their nutrition from micro-organisms like algae from the water column and in so doing effectively clean the water.
Source: Inter Press Service News Agency
Image: Terry Hunter is a cultural tour guide at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Being an extractive and extensive form of farming, pearl oyster aquaculture is one of the most environmentally sustainable industries. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS
In the beautiful, calm estuary of Brisbane Water an hour north of Sydney is the state’s only pearl farm – one of the best producers of Akoya cultured pearls in the world.
The little-known company Broken Bay Pearls uses pioneering farming techniques – it doesn’t use chemicals to treat and bleach the pearls, a common practice overseas – and is now inviting visitors aboard its 10-metre catamaran to explore its 150-year-old oyster cages, in a unique “shellar door” experience.
The recently launched farm tour includes a one-hour voyage across the bay where you can learn more about Akoya pearls, which are native to the east coast of Australia and its subtropical waters. They’re also farmed in Japan, China and a couple other areas in Asia, but in Australia are cultivated only on NSW’s central coast. (There are other non-Akoya pearl farms in the Kimberley, WA, Queensland and the NT.)
Source: Broadsheet.com.au
A CENTRAL Coast company producing some of the best cultured Akoya pearls in the world is having its moment in the sun thanks to investment from the west coast.
Cygnet Bay Pearls, based on the Kimberley coast and headed by third generation pearl farmer and marine biologist James Brown, recently became a major shareholder in Woy Woy-based Broken Bay Pearls.
Founded in 2003 by oyster farmers Ian and Rose Crisp with two others, Broken Bay Pearls is the only NSW company to produce Akoya cultured pearls, first produced in the early 1900s by Kokichi Mikimoto in Japan.
With Cygnet Bay Pearls now in partnership alone with the Crisps, the company will unleash a “raft of tools” to promote its pearls, which Mr Brown says are superior to those being produced in China and Japan.
Source: Newcastle Herald
A LITTLE known business operating from a tiny shed in Brisbane Water estuary is producing some of the best cultured pearls in the world.
Broken Bay Pearls at Woy Woy is the only Akoya pearl farm in NSW and the annual pearl oyster seeding period is well underway this month.
The pioneering growing techniques used on the farm are leading a new way in cultured pearl production which is environmentally friendly and chemical free.
Instead of the bleached and dyed silver and white pearls which come out of the massive Japanese and Chinese industries, Broken Bay pearls come in a range of hues — yellows and oranges, blues, creams, silver-greens and pinks.
The first ever study into the unique qualities of the pearls was carried out by Macquarie University researchers last year and has just been published in the journal, Gems and Gemology.
During the study, researchers documented pearl seeding and harvesting procedures and sampled pearls of various colours, shapes and sizes. The pearls were analysed using various scientific methods at Macquarie University and at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.
Researcher Laura Otter said the Broken Bay pearls were special because they occurred in a wide variety of unconventional natural colours.
Source: Central Coast Advocate
A Central Coast operation is achieving international success in producing some of the best Akoya cultured pearls in the world.
Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Deputy Director General, Fisheries, Dr Geoff Allan, said Broken Bay Pearls is demonstrating the innovation of NSW aquaculture.
“This operation in the sheltered waters surrounding Broken Bay produces some of the best Akoya cultured pearls in the world, which are sold to retail outlets across the state, with the Akoya pearl in high demand globally,” Dr Allan said.
“Broken Bay Pearls is leading the world in terms of quality Akoya production and is leading Australia in terms of a relatively new industry.
“Pearl farms like this one are incredibly valuable to our $70 million aquaculture industry here in NSW.
“The company has developed a range of new techniques to adapt cultured pearl production to the NSW conditions and it is environmentally friendly.”
The NSW Government has played a role in supporting the operation through the DPI, which has hatchery bred (spawned and raised to 2mm) every oyster the operation has used over the last 15 years.
James Brown, a third generation pearl farmer from Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm north of Broome, Western Australia recently bought into the operation and is now the major shareholder of Broken Bay Pearls.
James is the Managing Director of Cygnet Bay Pearls, a company that has been driving innovation in Australian pearling since founded by his grandfather in 1946. James Brown said the company is excited about the future in NSW.
“It is great to have a presence in NSW, at Cygnet Bay we are Australia’s oldest entirely Australian owned and operated pearl farm but Akoya in Broken Bay is a fresh new industry to this country and we are keen to apply our pioneering spirit, innovation and expertise to help realise its potential here in NSW,” Mr Brown said.
“One of the driving forces to invest in NSW was the great support the aquaculture industry gets from the DPI.
“If it hadn’t been such a great government-industry partnership I don’t think the industry would be where it is today and that collaborative approach gives us great confidence in growing from here.”
Source: NSW Department of Primary Industries
JAMES BROWN’S backyard isn’t like many others. Nor was his childhood. Nor is his future. The 40-year-old Kimberley pearl farmer looks out over a flat, blue expanse, broken only by dolphins, migrating whales and the boats that check his oyster beds.
The highest tropical tides in the world feed his lustrous crop, cramming King Sound with millions of tonnes of seawater before sucking it out again, on a six-hourly circuit as rhythmic as if the Earth is breathing.
Increasingly, he swaps the view he’s been drinking in since he was a baby for the close confines of an aircraft. As the head of Australia’s oldest, continuously operating pearl farm, he’s weathered the market-destroying global financial crisis and a pearl-killing aquatic disease. Now he’s facing a new challenge. The third in a line of fearless farmers is following his predecessors’ lead and shaking up the industry.
While high-end diamonds, wine and paintings can prove their authenticity with official, independent certification, Brown says no such thing exists in Australia for cultured pearls.
Few customers know that many pearls on the Australian market are bleached and dyed in their country of origin to resemble more expensive pearls, such as the Australian South Sea pearls grown around Broome, which are regarded as the world’s best. Currently, there’s no way of knowing or proving exactly where a pearl is from. Even if it is known, it’s rarely disclosed to buyers. By lifting the lid on such practices, Brown is hoping to secure his industry’s future.
Source: Perth Now, Fleur Bainger – published “Kimberley pearl farmer James Brown wants the industry to reveal the true origin of its precious gems”
Note: James Brown is Director of Pearls of Australia, a partnership between Cygnet Bay Pearls and Broken Bay Pearls in New South Wales which now offers pearl farm experiences in Sydney’s best new day tour.
Learn more about Australian pearls by joining us on a Broken Bay Pearl Farm Tour.
Broken Bay Pearl Farm is pleased to continue through the rest of the year with 2 hour tours now available Thursday and Saturdays.
One of Sydney’s best new tour experiences, guests are invited to see the only pearl farm in New South Wales where an experienced pearl farmer will take guests on the Pearls of Australia catamaran to see where the pearls are grown and share a live pearl harvest.
Once on shore, a pearl technician will share the seven virtues that determine the beauty and value of both the Broken Bay Akoya pearl grown in New South Wales, as well as the Cygnet Bay South Sea pearl grown the Kimberley.
Broken Bay Pearl Farm was established in 2003 by oyster farmers who discovered the native Akoya pearl oyster growing amongst their crop in the pristine waters of New South Wales’ Central Coast.
Broken Bay has recently joined forces with Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm north of Broome in Western Australia to create Pearls of Australia which features two additional virtues of provenance and purity that make their pearls among the most valuable in the world.
For updates on future tour availability follow us on Facebook.
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
Australian South Sea Pearls have been independently certified as the World’s most ethical and environmentally sustainable following an industry world-first Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.
This means wearers of Australian South Sea Pearls have the peace of mind that their pearl came from wild pearl oysters collected in a fishery operating to the highest standards of environmentally sustainable management in the World.
When announcing this milestone achievement for sustainable farming, Pearl Producers Association Executive Officer Aaron Irving explained that the MSC Standard is an independent, internationally accredited science based standard, against which the environmental sustainability management of a wild marine resource fishery is rigorously assessed.
“MSC certification recognises our long history of sustainable management and stewardship of our Pearl oyster fishery and ensures the highest level of confidence for our discerning customers in making an ethical purchase choice.” he said.
Pearl oysters are hand-collected by divers working to strict limits on the total number of pearl oysters taken and their size.
They are then seeded to allow the pearl oyster to grow the pearl.
Pearls of Australia Managing Director James Brown is proud to be a contributor to this certification, with Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm on the Kimberley coast ensuring best practice is deployed to ensure that industry is working in harmony with the pristine natural environment, and that the Pinctada maxima oyster population can thrive for generations to come.
“Cygnet Bay is the first entirely Australian owned-and-operated pearl farm with my uncle being the first non-Japanese person to be able to culture pearls and we now have a range of research and development programs that are unique to this company because of that long history,” said James.
In 2010 Cygnet Bay Pearls established the Kimberley Marine Research Station following a collaboration with the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) to further promote truly independent research of the Kimberley coastal and marine region.
As a third generation Australian pearl farmer and marine biologist, James is advocating for the international pearl grading standard to adopt an additional two virtues of provenance and purity in order to draw light to the consumer about the importance of MSC certification in the value of the Australian pearl.
“On the international market today there are two distinctive virtues that cannot be guaranteed which are source of origin and purity and these are important value-adds to consumers in the modern world,” said James.
Pearls of Australia invites guests to encounter first-hand the care and pride taken in their farms located at Cygnet Bay as well as Broken Bay on the New South Wales central coast with the hope that everyone who has this experience will share the seven virtues that make Australian pearls so valuable.
Original source: Pearl Producers Association media release
Cutting-edge science and 19th-century Japanese trade secrets behind groundbreaking WA pearl hatchery
After nearly 60 years, one of Australia’s oldest pearl farms is celebrating its first harvest involving a combination of 19th-century Japanese trade secrets and modern-day science.
Cygnet Bay Pearls is one of the country’s oldest pearl farms owned by the Brown family for three generations, the first Australians to successfully harvest a cultured pearl.
Up until this moment no pearl farm in the world had ever been started without Japanese involvement.
Now these pearling pioneers are celebrating another historic milestone at the farm, located 200km north of Broome, with the first ever harvest from shells bred in their hatchery.
It is a huge turning point for the industry after a mystery disease wiped out huge numbers wild stocks of the Pinctada Maxima pearl shells which were once abundant in the region.
Source: ABC Rural, Courtney Fowler
Article from Coast Magazine on Broken Bay’s Akoya Pearls
SOME OF THE FINEST AKOYA PEARLS IN THE WORLD ARE INDIGENOUS TO THE PRISTINE WATERS AROUND BROKEN BAY AND WOY WOY. Story by Catharine Retter, Coast Magazine.
There, that caught you by surprise. Why didn’t we all know about this? What makes them so special, and why the waters of the Central Coast?
Why Australian Akoya Pearls?
James Brown, a marine biologist, and CEO of Broken Bay Pearls, has flown from Broome where three generations of his family have run Cygnet Bay Pearls, farming the sought-after Australian South Sea Pearls. I couldn’t wait to ply him with questions about the little-known Broken Bay pearling farm that he has just bought into.
The answer about what makes the Broken Bay Pearls so unique and so special is both complex and deceptively simple… once you know.
The pearls in question are Australian Akoya Pearls grown deep inside creamy brown-grey Akoya oysters firmly bedded within their luminescent mother-of-pearl shells. Akoya pearls have long been famous in Japan, Vietnam and China. But it seems they’re still largely undiscovered here, even though they’ve been formally identified by pearlers, marine scientists and the Australia Museum for up to 100 years. These wild pearl oysters were also thought to be important as food to the Awaba Darkinjung peoples around Broken Bay more than 200 years ago. The Akoya’s flesh looks more like a mussel than a Sydney Rock Oyster and I’m told they taste like a cross between a scallop, a mussel and, well, a rock oyster.
‘Their pearls are often more than ten times better than Akoya Pearls grown elsewhere,’ James says. ‘In Asia, it’s quite normal for Akoya pearls to be artificially bleached and dyed in order to improve their colour and lustre. Here, there’s no need for that, and that’s what gives them their extraordinary value and status.’
Dr Wayne O’Connor is an internationally acclaimed Senior Principal Research Scientist in molluscs whose work has done much to help establish pearl farming on Australia’s east coast. He agrees the quality of Australian Akoya pearls is unsurpassed.
‘Around Broken Bay, away from the more tropical waters, the oyster’s metabolism is slower,’ he explains. ‘The summers here are milder and the winters are usually not too cool. And that means the oyster has time to lay down a fine natural nacre or outer skin that gives them such a rich lustre and colour.’
The pearls’ natural colour range is also spectacular: from traditional pure white, to a subtle pink-hued white, to silver-pink, even gold, as well as a rainbow of shades in between. The colours come from the dominant colour in the donor mother-of-pearl grafted tissue inserted into the host oysters that allow the pearl sacs to grow.
The history of Broken Bay Pearls
Ian and Rose Crisp are two of the founding partners of Broken Bay Pearls. When they were oyster farming in the 1990’s they came across young wild oysters among their crop that definitely weren’t Sydney Rock Oysters. NSW Fisheries identified them as Australian Akoya Pearl Oysters, so the two then began growing stock for a Japanese company before establishing Broken Bay Pearls.
‘To avoid in-breeding the oysters, we source new breeders from wild stock,’ says Rose. After having bred oysters since the 1990’s Rose and Ian know where the best wild stock is found up and down the coast.
‘We dive just using snorkels to find them,’ says Ian. ‘Unfortunately, they tend to grow where the bull sharks also like to be!’
Ian is the pearl farmer who reads the tides and the water quality like an inland farmer reads the soil and the seasons of the land. Rose is an unusually skilled pearl technician by both Australian and world standards. That she is one of only a small number of women in this role makes her even more special. At first meeting you sense her down-to-earth nature and an unmistakable pioneering spirit, but to watch her is to observe a micro-surgeon at work.
‘I might seed 300 oysters in a day,’ she says. ‘It’s painstakingly fine work and I need to be in the zone to be able to concentrate.’
Pearl Harvesting Process
There is little if any talking and background noise is muted as Rose prises open a shell, only wide enough to insert a round-bladed scalpel and hooked probe. Then she makes a small incision deep in the mollusc’s gonad (which, to the untrained eye, looks like any other part of the oyster). Here the oyster is ‘germinated’ with graft tissue and one or even two small round shell nuclei are inserted by means of a tiny cupped probe. The nascent pearl is left to grow for 18 months into a beautifully round shape 4 to 8mm in size, although baroque pearls are also found.
Before producing their pearls, it will have taken around two years for the oysters to grow from larvae into juveniles, called spat – that look like tiny, scruffy grey shells you wouldn’t give a second glance to – and then into oysters that are big enough to thrive in open waters.
After that, Mother Nature plays a major part in the success of these Central Coast pearls. The oysters are grown fully submerged on long lines not easily found or accessible to anglers or would-be oyster thieves in the many miles of waterways.
‘The main threat is from barnacles which will love the oysters to death if left unchecked,’ says Ian. This means he and his team regularly need to pressure-clean the shells. ‘It ‘s also the favourite food of octopuses, and turtles are also quite partial to them.’
So skilled is Rose and her team in seeding the oysters that, this year, Broken Bay Pearls harvested up to 5,000 single and double-seeded oysters, most of which resulted in AA and AAA grade quality pearls, the highest standard attainable.
And, as James Brown comments, ‘Compared to pearling off Broome, there are no cyclones, no 12-metre tides and you have the beautiful sheltered waters around Broken Bay in which to grow them.’
The abundance of National Parks and natural bushlands that surround these waterways anchor the soil, preventing it from flowing into the estuaries. The familiar mangroves and the prolific seagrass beds – regarded as the ‘forests of the sea’ – act as lungs for the waterways, producing oxygen and trapping any fine sediment.
Organic Pearl Farming
And, because Akoya pearls are saltwater pearls, the salinity level of the water is all important, so the free flow of the tides and the lack of rivers flooded with industrial run-offs is crucial. If this sounds like organic farming, you’d be right, and a pearl oyster needs to thrive, not merely survive, to be able to make its coveted lustrous pearl.
And yet, such is the embedded nature of the pearl market around the world, that the prices gained by Australia’s fledgling Akoya pearl industry have not yet caught up to their true value. But be forewarned, there’s a slow, perhaps grudging, recognition emerging and a sense in the air that the tide is about to change.
Pearl Farm Tours Launched
Pearls of Australia is pleased to announce the launch of the first ever pearling tourism in New South Wales. Broken Bay Pearl Farm, an hour north of Sydney in Woy Woy, opens its doors from this December.
Broken Bay Pearl Farm Tours invite guests to board a 10m catamaran where an experienced farm skipper introduces you to the pearl of New South Wales, until now a best-kept-secret hidden among the local 150 year-old Rock Oyster industry.
How it all Works
On board the cruise, guests will be immersed in the virtues of the pristine marine environment that give birth to our immaculate oysters.
Incredible marine wildlife including pelicans, turtles and stingray as well as abundant fish are a living display of the thriving central coast marine ecosystem, essential to the pearl farm’s success.
Throughout the experience, Broken Bay Pearl Farm’s pearling team will reveal the intricacies of pearl farming before returning to land where guests will take part in a very special hands-on session with the pearl harvest.
Each will be offered a selection of Akoya and South Sea pearls while an expert shares the seven virtues that underpin the true value of these farm-direct pearls of Australia.
About Pearls of Australia
Broken Bay Pearl Farm and Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm located in the Kimberley Coast of Western Australia both offer the rare opportunity for the public to experience an authentic, working pearl farm.
Together they form Pearls of Australia.
Managing Director and third generation pearl farmer James Brown explains why opening these farm-gate experiences to the public are so important to the future of Australia’s pearling industry which produces the world’s most valuable pearls, in unique marine environments on opposite sides of the country.
“To discover how a pearl of Australia is preciously cultivated in pristine marine environments is to experience something very rare and special, and allows you to understand the value and beauty of these high-quality gems,” said James.
Our Ethos and Cygnet Bay Pearls
Akin to the ethics of Pearls of Australia which began with Cygnet Bay Pearls, Broken Bay’s farming processes are environmentally sustainable.
Great pride and care are taken to maintain the pristine waters in which the farm is situated, creating the perfect edu-tourism opportunity for local and visiting guests from around the world.
“As an entirely brand new tourism offering that celebrates a world class product produced on the Central Coast, we hope to see Broken Bay Pearl Farm offer a new attraction to the region, as well as a complimentary value-add to existing industry offerings such as wineries and harvest trails,” said James.
Broken Bay Pearl Farm Tours follow the demonstrated success of Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, Australia’s original family-owned and operated pearl farm which first opened its doors to the public in 2009, where guests are given a “back-stage” look at the highly secretive industry and an opportunity to purchase pearls directly from the waters in which they are farmed.
While still operating as a working pearl farm, Cygnet Bay has since grown to become a “must see” destination on the Kimberley Coast, featuring a homestead restaurant, infinity pool with several styles of accommodation, and has been the recipient of many esteemed tourism awards.
Established in 2003, Broken Bay pearl farm is the only pearl producer in New South Wales, and has continually produced high quality pearls since then.
The Broken Bay Akoya pearl is exceptionally high quality and rare, believed to be the premium Akoya on the global market today due to its longer cultivation, extraordinary lustre and wide range of unconventional natural colours.
Pearls of Australia offers a world-first with certification of provenance and purity – two additional virtues of our two native Australian pearl species.
The first tours to Broken Bay Pearl Farm will depart Woy Woy on Wednesday 5 December, to which media and local tourism agencies are invited to familiarise.
Online bookings will go live on Monday 3 December until which time bookings can be made by phone (0488 361 042) or email (info@pearlsofaustralia.com.au).
AUSTRALIAN PEARL JEWELLERY DESIGN MASTERS 2018
Pearls of Australia is thrilled to congratulate the final award recipient of the 2018 Australian Pearl Jewellery Design Masters for People’s Choice.
Richelle Perks of Brisbane received the most votes across the three-month campaign for her spider necklace design “Nephila Lucilia”, this announcement follows her Design Master Award, achieving the highest score across an industry judging panel for the same design.
Featuring an Australian South Sea Pearl from Cygnet Bay Pearls, “Nephila Lucilia” (scientific name for Golden Orb Weaver) was made in the image of the spiders that surround the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm with a green bottlefly clasp – the spider itself a detachable brooch.
As award recipient for People’s Choice, Richelle will receive an additional $2,000 cash as well as a $500 Pallion Voucher and an Australian South Sea Pearl from Cygnet Bay worth $1,325 – her overall winning prize pool worth almost $13,000.
The Runner Up
Highly commended in second place is Hannah Alexander with her unique earrings “Ocean Ivy” featuring Australian Blue Sapphires and a Cygnet Bay Australian South Sea Keshi pearl.
Voting for the People’s Choice Award opened at the International Jewellery Fair in Sydney on Saturday 25 August and closed on Friday 23 November.
Votes were received online and in-person across this period, where the general public were offered an opportunity to vote for their favourite design to win a seat on the 2019 Pearls of Australia East to West Voyage or jewellery prizes, winning voters have been notified.
Receiving a record 60 entries of extremely high calibre, this year’s Australian Pearl Jewellery Design Masters have received $30,000 worth of prizes including cash and pearls from Pearls of Australia, Pallion vouchers and memberships at Jewellery Training Solutions.
Competition Information
Entries were received from across Australia and around the world, including USA, Denmark, Singapore and Canada.
The designs have recently wrapped a national exhibition starting at the Shinju Matsuri Festival in Broome and Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm Harvest Festival before flying across Australia with Pallion, the largest precious metals services group in Australasia.
Jewellers from around the world are invited to express their interest in applying for the next Australian Pearl Jewellery Design Masters via the new portal website, www.pearlsofaustralia.com.au.
Pearls of Australia invites the world to immerse themselves in the natural beauty of the Australian pearl.
Pearl Farm Joins Broome Festival
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm will be celebrating its 2018 harvest with a 3-day festival of events as part of the Shinju Matsuri program, Broome’s festival of the pearl.
The harvest party was traditionally held as a thank you for the hard-working farm workers at the end of the Annual Pearl Harvest, Cygnet Bay now welcomes everyone to come and appreciate the Australian pearl at its farm on the Dampier Peninsula with a huge rundown of events and activities.
What is the Shinju Matsuri Festival?
The event is a celebration for the local community as well as tourists, celebrating the regions rich pearling history and the Brown family’s (something about them working with the local Bardi / Jawi people maybe?? Couldn’t find the words).
Cygnet Bay Harvest Celebration
The Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm Harvest Festival starts on Friday evening with ‘Stranded In Style’ where guests are taken to a private Kimberley beach and treated to sunset drinks and canapes with the special opportunity to wear some of Cygnet Bay’s pearls and strands.
Saturday will be free pearling demonstrations with the harvest party that evening featuring food, drink, raffles, games and prizes and live music
Sunday the festival continues with a day especially for children including free bouncy castle, games and fundraising activities for Save The Children.
The weekend of festivities will culminate on Sunday evening with an outdoor film night featuring critically acclaimed documentary ‘Gurrumul’ followed by Q&A with Director, Paul Williams.
Opportunities for Pearl Enthusiasts
Throughout the weekend will be scenic helicopter tours from KAS, sea safari and farm tours, as well as the Australian Pearl Masterclass where enthusiasts are invited to go behind-the-scenes of the farm to experience the intricacies of harvesting, seeding and grading the Australian South Sea Pearl.
At the festival, Cygnet Bay Pearls is also proud to be presenting the entry pieces from the 2018 Australian Pearl Jewellery Design Masters with the chance to vote for a favourite piece for the ‘People’s Choice’ award.
James Brown is third generation farmer of Cygnet Bay which has been operating for more than 70 years, and opened its doors to the public in 2009 to allow guests to not only discover what it takes to grow a pearl, but to offer the very rare opportunity to purchase pearls directly from the waters in which they were nurtured.
“Everyone is welcome to share in the beauty that is Cygnet Bay, and the pearls that we produce,” said James.
“This year’s harvest has produced some magnificent pearls which we will have on display for all our guests to see, and we encourage you to take part in the free activities throughout the weekend to share in the celebration of a great year.”
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm features a licensed restaurant with sweeping verandas and an infinity pool alongside boutique accommodation options including safari tents, camping and renovated historically listed pearler’s shacks, and is open to the public for day visits.
PEARLS OF AUSTRALIA
Who We Are
Cygnet Bay Pearls and Broken Bay Pearls are pleased to announce Pearls of Australia, a joint venture that represents two species of premium quality pearls with a guarantee of provenance and purity, as well as immersive industry experiences such as farm tourism offerings and industry experiences.
From New South Wales’ stunning Central Coast to the remote Kimberley, Pearls of Australia will represent a vast range of products and experiences centred around the Australian South Sea Pearl of Cygnet Bay north of Broome, and the Australian Akoya Pearl of Broken Bay north of Sydney.
Pearls are typically graded by five virtues of shape, size, colour, lustre and skin, however, Pearls of Australia offers an additional two virtues that distinguishes it from others on the international market. World class pearls, rich in lustre and colour, and sustainably forged in pristine marine environments, the seven virtues of Pearls of Australia include provenance and purity.
As the original Australian owned and operated pearl farm with a history spanning more than 70 years, Cygnet Bay Pearls has developed a unique insight into how the pearl market has developed and evolved over the decades.
Why Pearls of Australia?
Pearls of Australia was inspired by market research conducted by Cygnet Bay that confirmed authenticity is the most important trait for high quality jewellery consumers, however, the global wholesale pearl market currently does not have the tools to carry source of origin information through the supply chain.
With this in mind, Pearls of Australia has committed to further research with various universities which will ultimately enable industry to value a pearl based on the guarantee of source of origin, species and treatment.
Pearls of Australia Director and third-generation pearl farmer of Cygnet Bay Pearls, James Brown, explains how chain of custody within the global industry has compromised the true value of high-quality Australian product, which is sustainably farmed and doesn’t require post-harvest treatment, which is why they are still the highest quality pearls in the world.
“Pearl farmers generally sell into international wholesale markets which leads to the pearls passing through many different hands on their way to the consumer, so in today’s global market it is virtually impossible to prove where any particular pearl has come from,” said James referring to chain of custody issues within the industry.
Whether it be wine, food or even other gems such as diamonds, modern day consumers demand to know where a product is from as well as post-farm processing and Pearls of Australia aims to inspire the pearling industry to catch up with this trend.
“This is why Pearls of Australia is able to add two more virtues, provenance and purity to our product by selling direct from our farms, creating a new level of pearl authenticity and offering a genuine point of difference – while there is this void of product knowledge in the market it will continue to result in consumers being sold something that lacks the genuine product authenticity they desire,” said James.
Pearls of Australia will sell wholesale Australian Akoya and Australian South Sea pearls, as well as set jewellery direct from its farms, together with educational tools and experiences that can be used by the buyer to elevate the value proposition of this product over others.
Pearl Farm Tours
Additional to its pearls and pearl jewellery, Pearls of Australia offers access to education-based tourism products at pearl farms on both sides of the country which provide invaluable hands on, farm and pearl experiences that promote the products and the pristine natural environments vital to their production.
These immersive experiences incorporate a range of farm activities both land-based and on water, pearl seeding and harvesting, and grading classes where guests can discover first-hand all aspects of the pearl farming processes in the unique marine environment of two native species of Australian pearl shell. This special knowledge and inspiring story is shared with guests within the context of the rich cultural heritage of Australia’s pearling industry which dates back 20,000 years when the traditional owners of the Kimberley coast used the Pinctada maxima shell (mother of the Australian South Sea Pearl) as a valuable tool of trade.
“To wear Pearls of Australia, is to wear the world’s purest pearl, and to appreciate a jewel of great value due to its quality, rarity and a guarantee of provenance and authenticity,” said James.
Pearls of Australia invites the world to immerse themselves in the natural beauty of the Australian pearl.
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