The Classroom Clown, the misguided inventor.
He's your barman.
The boy most likely not to succeed.
In the north of Western Australia lies the
pearling capital of the world, Broome.
It has a fascinating history and tonight Malcolm Douglas takes a look at the town, its past
and present and the nearby coast.
Although the explorer Dampier first discovered pearl shell there in 1688, it was nearly 200
years before a pearling industry was set up.
Of course, in days gone by, before modern plastics, pearl shell was the main material
for buttons and was much in demand.
But the pursuit of these shells was a dangerous task with early pearlers being unaware of
the dangers of the deep, the risks involved in deep diving.
And between 1910 and 1917, 145 divers perished.
But methods have changed over the decades and the cultured pearl industry has revitalised
the old pearling centre.
Malcolm has a few interesting stories to relate about the area.
He lives there for much of the year so it holds a special interest to him.
Broome, the port of pearls, a hundred years old and so different from any other place
in Australia.
This magical old town sprawls beside Roebuck Bay.
The forefathers of this polyglot community came to seek fortune from Malaya, the Celebes,
Japan and the Philippines.
With the Aborigines and Europeans, they worked on luggers, diving deep for the elusive pearl
shell.
In 1688, the buccaneer and explorer William Dampier found pearl shell when he sailed along
the north west coast.
But it was not until the 1850s that the first shell was collected in Shark Bay.
The Pink Tata Maxima was the biggest and most valuable shell and Broome with its shallow
tidal creek soon became the pearling capital of the world.
Within 50 years, pearling was the fastest growing industry in Western Australia.
The mother of pearl was shipped overseas to supply the lucrative button market.
Occasionally, a natural pearl provided a lucky bonus.
In the fabulous days before World War I, Broome grew, spreading out from the shores of Roebuck
Bay.
400 boats collected shell and during the layup season Dampier Creek was crammed with luggers.
Broome was a boom town with a population of 5,000 boisterous boozing citizens.
In 1914, when war broke out in Europe, the pearl shell industry collapsed overnight.
Shell was worthless and the master pearlers were ruined.
After the war, they battled on until the Depression affected the demand for buttons again.
Then the Second World War completely crippled the struggling enterprise.
When buttons were made from the newly invented plastics, the pearl shell industry seemed doomed.
It was miraculously rescued from total demise by the development of the cultured pearl.
Once again, there was a reprieve for Broome and today, pearling is bigger than ever.
Malcolm, a resident of Broome, has been able to capture the mysteries of the fabulous pearl on film.
The backbone of pearling for 100 years were the luggers, graceful craft usually 60 feet long and catch-rigged.
At a full sail, they were a magnificent sight.
Most of the luggers were constructed in Broome and the remnants of the once huge fleet were still being refitted as recently as the 1970s.
At the end of the wet season, the fleet sailed from Broome out to the most prolific shell grounds.
Life on board was tough. Conditions were cramped and the hours long.
For 100 years, the copper helmets and rubber suits enabled the divers to descend deep into the eerie silent world below the sea.
At first life, the crew were already busy on deck preparing for the day's work.
The divers had to be helped into the cumbersome, bulky equipment.
They worked in their thick rubber suits until sundown.
As the sun rose, the diver was ready to hit the water.
He adjusted his air valve as the lead weights and heavy boots dragged him down.
His lifelines to the surface were the orange air hose and the heavy manila rope.
On the sea floor, he filled his suit with air and lumbered slowly through the murky gloom.
When shell was spotted, he signalled to his tender for more rope.
If the seabed was barren, he called for a fast drift and was pulled roughly along.
Covered with weed and coral growth, shell was easily spotted by an experienced diver.
The faint outline in the mud was all that could be seen.
With his basket full, the diver gave the ascent signal and closed off his air valve.
His suit filled with air and he rose to the surface.
The divers supported two divers and the Japanese in belays were the best for the job.
The diver had a break while the lager was repositioning for another drift over the shell beds.
The shell scrubbed clean was packed in bags ready for sorting back in broon.
The divers, skilled and courageous, were regarded with war and respect.
A good diver could make a fortune in a few seasons, returning to his village a wealthy and honoured man.
But in the early days, the risks were enormous and the chances of survival slim.
Nothing was known about decompression sickness, a painful death by paralysis that struck when the diver worked too long at a great depth.
The diver surfaced unaware that on his return to the lager, he would suddenly double up with the pain of the bends as nitrogen bubbles lodged in his joints.
Between 1910 and 1917, 145 divers in the broom fleet died and many more were crippled for life.
The broom cemetery today displays a stark reminder of the tragic loss of life before the cause of this agonising death was discovered.
By 1918, the mystery of the bends was solved and with the installation of a decompression chamber in broom, the number of deaths dropped dramatically.
Although some of the divers chose to ignore the new regulations and continue to take enormous risks, hoping to collect more shell than the other crews.
When the boats returned to port, the small jetties were a hive of activity.
The shell was laboriously unloaded and dragged to the sorting sheds.
Nowhere else in Australia were so many nationalities indentured to support an industry and after three generations this has given broom a unique character.
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Sunday Times, and the living is easy.
In a special report, a referral centre counsellor talks frankly about the horror of rape.
Read how the loss of Roger Waters rejuvenated supergroup Pink Floyd.
TV Extra talks to Shane Porteous and Peter O'Brien about how married life will change their screen roles.
Barry Barkler previews all your week's movies and don't miss our full coverage of the Eagles versus Swans match.
The living is easy with the Sunday Times.
Come to Adventure World and enjoy over 25 rides and attractions, including Exploratron, a world first,
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Every year on the eve of the August moon, this multiracial community gets together for the Shinju Matsuri, the Festival of the Pearl.
And where else would a Chinese dragon and a Scottish pipe band parade together?
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The mild climate, delightful beaches and oriental influence due to a century of pearling has
put Broom on the tourist map. An old streeter and mailboat lies careened awaiting a buyer,
but the luggers have now been superseded by faster, bigger, more efficient vessels. South
from Broom in the shallow waters of the 80 mile beach, the last Broom lugga, the John
Louis B3, is still at work, although the diving techniques have been updated. Gone forever
are the old copper helmets. The men now dive in wetsuits, goggles, flippers and trailing
a light air hose. Without adequate facilities on board the old boat, the shell collected
during the seasons has been stored in dumps on the seabed. The men working in appalling
visibility collect the shell for transferal to the farm. Plastic bags are inflated to
lift the laden baskets to the surface. These days only small shells allowed to be taken
for culturing pearls. Packed in containers, it can be kept alive for several hours out
of the water. Back in Broom, Rudy Vandercroft is taking off in his de Havilland Beaver float
plane. He's to rendezvous with the John Louis B3 to pick up their shell, an innovation that
the early purlers could not have imagined in their wildest dreams. It's a blustery
day with wind gusts to 30 knots, so the luggas skip ahead for the sheltered waters off the
80 mile beach. For Rudy, it's always an exhilarating time, landing on choppy seas.
The crew works quickly, for planes are expensive to hire, and before the winds increase, the
pilot with a heavy load needs to get airborne as soon as possible.
Back in Broom, the shell will be transferred to a Cessna for the flight to the Pearl Farm.
After a number of flights, all the shells have been offloaded, and the B3 heads north
to the farm at Deepwater Point in King Sound. The John Louis is the last traditional lugga
working off Broom, and when it goes, a special part of Australian seafaring history will
be lost forever. The men relax, landing some nice Spanish mackerel. Lenny, a Torres Strait
Islander and a top diver, takes one from Malcolm for tea.
Monday, in a country practice, a film crew interviews Frank, but a steady job soon becomes
the story of a lifetime. Two people disappear from hospital, one a 12 year old boy, the
other a young man with a record. Should the film crew report all the information?
Don't you think the public has the right to know the background of this animal?
Or are they obstructing the course of justice? They call this trial by media.
A country practice, 7.30 Monday on 7.
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At Broome, Malcolm leaves the lager and heads overland to the pearl farms. Along the way
he stops at Beagle Bay to visit the church, the most inspiring building in the north west.
In 1914, a Catholic order of German priests were interned on the mission and throughout
the war years built the church as a confirmation of their faith. The Aboriginal community cut
the timber, made the bricks and searched the shallows for shells. Pearl shell inlays glow
in the reflected light. The altar, the tabernacle and even the floor display the totemic designs
of the local tribes interwoven with symbols of the Christian faith. It's surely a remarkable
building but being so far from the main road it's seen by few travellers.
We've just reached Norman Creek at the top of Beagle Bay. Now what we're going to do
in the morning when it's a lot calmer than it is now, we're going to run our dinghy out
here and about 30 nautical miles out to the Lassapedes. You got a bit of that gear there
huh? And when we get to the Lassapedes we're going to camp there for a couple of days.
You normally can't go to the Lassapedes because it's a nature reserve but I've got a permit
to go out there. The Lassapedes is very famous because in the early days the pearlers used
to use it as a base. Let's wait until we get out there and have a look at it.
While waiting for the winds to drop Malcolm and his mates run a net out in the sheltered
waters of Norman Creek. It doesn't take long to collect a feed of magnificent whiting.
Many of these areas along the coast are either Aboriginal reserves, wildlife sanctuaries
or pearling leases and cannot be entered without permission. The following morning conditions
are calmer and Malcolm heads due west for 20 nautical miles to the Lassapede Islands.
Low sandy spits that have played an important part in the history of pearling. These islands
are the main breeding grounds for the gregarious booby gannets. It's late in the season and
the fledgling boobies launch themselves unsteadily into the air.
These are the Lassapede Islands, quiet and remote now to nature reserve. And you're not
supposed to come out here without a permit although some people do. But the Lassapedes
have got a notorious and bloody past. Very few people know that this was the only part
of Australia that was ever taken over by a foreign power. Yes, our friends the Americans,
they raised their flag here in about 1876. They're after this, bird droppings, guano.
They're going to dig it up, take it across to South America. In fact they got a load
out of here. Well that caused an international incident and of course was finally handed
back to Australia. And in front of me I've got this, what appears to be an old building.
And this is another clue to the past of the Lassapedes. In the early days some of the
Perlers went over to the mainland and they captured young Aboriginal boys and girls,
teenagers. And they kept them here like a bank of slaves and very few people in Australia
realised this. Then the other Perlers came up from Cossack and Robben, the pearling towns
down south here. They traded for these teenagers and they took them down there to dive for
pearl shell. The Perlers would row around in their boats taking the teenagers with them,
tip them over the side in the shallow water, make them feel around on the bottom for pearl
shell. They came up with any shell, the shell was put in the boat and had to dive again.
But if they came up with that shell, the Perler had a big waddy, hit them on the knuckles
and on the head, send them down for shell. It's a terrible story but it's true.
Within a few years this barbaric practice was forbidden. Once again the islands became
a tranquil sanctuary for seabirds, disturbed only during the pearling season when the waters
around the Lassapedes proved to be one of the most prolific shell grounds of the north
west coast. In their brief contact with the islands the black birders introduced an unwelcome
rodent and now camping on the islands is extremely unpleasant. The men have had a sleepless night
and footprints through the camp plainly show the cause of the disturbance, rat tracks.
Malcolm chases one. It's Rattus rattus, the common rat. An ugly animal, they're an ecological
disaster preying on the breeding seabirds. Rats show no mercy, these are baby cormorants.
If the parents leave the nests unguarded the rats attack. At IKEA there are so many storage
units it's hard to decide which design you like best or which combination you need or
whether to buy them all at once or bit by bit. IKEA, Scarborough Beach Road, Osborne
Park, incredible. This is Watson and this is Holmes. You'd think they were just a pair
of playful cats but they are indeed the world's most skillful sleuths. So at dinner time it's
elementary, it's dine, new tasty meat varieties, chicken turkey liver and lamb veal liver.
Delicious. A famous duo like Holmes and Watson wouldn't enjoy anything less. For a cat that's
really a person it's 100% delicious. Dine. I think I've found the cause of death. Look
at that. Smoking causes heart disease, it's on the packs. Burke and Wills have nothing
on us, let's go home. Another great dirty weekend. I'll say. Let's get cleaned up then
I'll start on these. Cold power takes care of this kind of dirt. In fact nothing's better
than cold power on really tough dirt and odours in cold water. Hey this looks great, smells
terrific. Ready Burke? After you Wills. Nothing beats cold power in cold water. At IKEA you
can pick up a chair for very little. The only trick is deciding which chairs you like best.
IKEA. Scarborough Beach Road, Osborne Park. Incredible. The rats are able to escape the
fierce heat by tunnelling under the hard crust of bird droppings that's built up over thousands
of years. The babies wrapped in a white ball of fluff look bigger than their parents. Showing
no fear of Malcolm, the chicks pose for the camera. Growing rapidly they go through a
dowdy scruffy adolescent stage. In the evenings the adults return to regurgitate the catch
for their impatient young. Malcolm and his mates plan a fishing trip of their own for
the following morning. Fishing's pretty good on the Perling Coast and a lot of my mates
ask me what's my favourite lure. Well I'll show you one of my secrets. The old sunshine
milking lid. And when you run out of lures you can pull out this bit of foil that's in
the top, put it back on the lid and grab that piece of foil and wrap it around the hook.
Now don't laugh because this does really make an exceptionally good lure. Right on. Now
we just get that around there. Twist it around, just shape it up like a fish. Now I'll work
on this a little bit more for a couple of minutes. Put it down there. Crimp some lead
on it. That'll stay in place. I know you're all shaking your heads with disbelief but
I tell you what the fishing's very good up here. Right on now I've just got to get a
little bit of a tail on it. Right there we are. Top lure. Let's go and catch a fish.
Within minutes Malcolm's landed a nice trevally on his tin lid lure. Well sunshine milk tin
lid is working well. Here we are. How's that for a fish? A bit knocked up. Righto you fishermen
next time you come up the coast here make sure you bring your old tin lid. It's not
far from here on the Lassipedes but one of the great tragedies of the Broome pearling
fleet occurred was out here in the Lassipedes deeps between the islands and the mainland.
There were 29 luggers working the bottom. They were on a great patch of shell. They
anchored there overnight ready to put the divers down first thing in the morning. Not long
after sundown the skippers noticed in the north fog lightening so they said to their
men, anger's up, sails up, let's head for the mainland. But they couldn't move because
it was glassy calm like it is this morning and in those days they had no auxiliary engines
so they just sat there and as the hours passed a cyclone hit and in the morning of the 29
luggers there were only three still floating and 140 men died. Only one Japanese crewman
clinging to wreckage reached the islands alive. Returning to the mainland Malcolm heads for
deep water point in the sheltered expanse of King Sound. Here he meets up with the lugger
B3 again. The crew are retrieving the shell from the dumps on the sea floor. This is the
shell that was collected off the 80 mile beach and left on the bottom near the farm for several
months to recover from the stress of collection and the plane journey. As the sediment rises
visibility drops to a few centimetres and only an experienced diver can work all day
under these conditions. After retrieval the oysters are hung in baskets ready for the
technician who will operate on each one to produce a cultured pearl. A cultured pearl
is only slightly different from a natural pearl. What actually makes a natural pearl?
Well let's just have a look at the small pearl shell here. Now just imagine if that pearl
shell is down on the bottom and it's all covered with seaweed of course and it's open like
that on the bottom and the mantle the orange section that actually makes the white substance
the naka is right up here on the edge. Now the shells lying on the bottom and just imagine
a fish swimming along here and as it passes it flicks its tail and a piece of mud or shell
will lodge in on that mantle. Let's just open it up and have a look. Now this mantle is
closed up when it's in the water this section here can be orange or black is open right
out. Now the piece of mud or shell or whatever it is lodged on that mantle and the first
thing the animal tries to do is reject it and if it can't reject it well then it starts
coating the matter with the white substance and that's called naka and that's what pearls
are all about. Now in this one you can see here just next to the little crab a small
pearl now that's a natural pearl that has formed there something's gone in landed on
the mantle it can't get it out that's the animal can't get it out so it starts coating
it and the longer it stays there the bigger the pearl and that's why a natural pearl is
worth a lot of money because they're very rare you might only get one in every 20 or
30,000 shells. Now with the cultured pearl it's a slightly different process we'll take
the shell and open it up slightly now there it is now you'll see this down in the shed
what they do is they put a wedge in there and they take a nucleus I've got one here
it's actually a piece of shell all the way from the Mississippi River they collect this
shell and they grind it up into like a ball bearing size and they send them from Japan
to Australia now what the technician does he gets that and he places it inside the animal
let's just open this up there we are well it's actually on this side here so he drops
it in very carefully places it near the stomach of the animal and he cuts a piece of mantle
either from this animal or from another animal just a small piece and he places it right
next to that nucleus and his tiny little piece of mantle continues living and it starts coating
that nucleus with a mother of pearl and after two years you've got the broom pearls the
biggest and best cultured pearls in the world. On the foreshore is the heart of the pearl
farm the operating shed. The shell brought in from the floating raft each morning is
placed in a shallow trough of circulating seawater as each oyster begins to open a wedge
is jammed into the gap to make room for the technicians tools. The Japanese are no longer
the top divers but they're still a vital part of the industry for they have the knowledge
and skill to seed the oysters. The technicians all have their own special secrets but Fuji
allowed Malcolm to watch him working. First the edge of the mantles cut from a healthy
mollusk it's the mantle that creates the lustrous nacre. The strip is sliced in a small piece
placed between the foot retractor muscle and the intestine of the host oyster to encourage
it to coat the nucleus. With the nucleus in place the clamps are removed and the oyster
swiftly closes. The baskets of shell are suspended from the raft until the divers are ready to
place them in selected areas. In the claustrophobic gloom 15 metres down on the muddy sea floor
the real back breaking work begins. Steel posts are laboriously driven into the mud
so the baskets of shell can be contained in rows. Every second day for 50 days each basket
is turned so that the nacre forms evenly around the nucleus. The oysters are then hung on plastic
poles and cleaned every few months. In two years each shell should contain a lustrous
pearl. Malcolm will return to the farms for the harvest but now he's heading out to the
graveyard a dangerous area of King Sound where many divers perished in pursuit of pearl shell.
Crossing King Sound is hazardous the awesome power of the dropping tide surges past the
rocks like a river in flood. The waters of King Sound have always been notoriously dangerous
but the early pearlers had their preferred bays and locations for picking up shell and
there's one particular place that they used to go because there's always huge mother of
pearl, huge shell. They take their luggers in and anchor on the slack tide that's just
between say high tide and low tide before it changes and there's a period of about half
an hour when there's not so much movement of the water. The diver would go down in his
full suit and start walking along the murky bottom and he'd find this huge shell so he'd
be signaling to his tender let out more rope move me along stop me here give me more air
and he'd be working frantically to pick up this huge shell he'd be filling his basket
up and of course he'd get so carried away the next thing the tide would change and then
go from virtually no current to a rushing tide almost like a moving river under the
sea and he'd be signaling frantically to the tender pull me up pull me up but of course
the water pressure was so strong he was getting dragged along the bottom and the next thing
his air hose and his rope would be tangled up around a big coral outcrop or a rock big
coral bommie and he'd be stuck there and he'd be signaling away and he couldn't get pulled
up and all the guys on board would be trying to lift him up and of course in the end they'd
lose a diver and to this day if you look on the nautical maps up in the top of King Sound
you'll see an area marked the graveyard because the early pearl has lost so many divers there.
In fact a few years ago the old barbie aborigines told me a story about years ago when a young
Japanese diver went down in the graveyard he was moving along and he's picking up shell
he came to a suit a full diving suit with a helmet and everything lying on the bottom
and he looked in and he saw the skull of a diver still in the suit he terribly frightened
and of course he signaled to his men to pull him up and to this day the Japanese divers
have never gone back to the graveyard.
7.30 Sunday on Elf.
Oh howdy Raquel.
As the fuzzball finally beats sprung.
Be on the lookout for this hideous looking space creature.
Mrs. Ocmonic thinks she's losing her marbles.
I think she's wacko.
So Elf arranges a special live telecast.
There are many things in this universe you're not meant to understand.
Including a special request for his next door neighbour.
Also I noticed you don't have a cap.
Remedy that.
Elf Plus who's the boss 7.30 Sunday.
It's a classic situation.
You must know what it's like.
You're tied up with your children when the tummy rumbles strikes.
Still the answers right beside you reach your hand out for the phone.
The Diler Dinos bring the pizza home.
This month with every family deep pan bumper from Diler Dinos you'll get free a large bottle
of soft drink and piping hot garlic bread.
Diler Dinos bumper plus.
It's a feast big enough to satisfy the whole tribe.
Help.
Diler Dinos.
Believe it or not you can scoop up a block of land here at Halls Head for just one thousand
dollars deposit.
And if that's not enough to get you to Manjaro how about paying only twelve and a half percent
interest.
And if that's not enough try prices starting at just thirteen thousand nine hundred and
fifty dollars.
Town and countries Halls Head.
The absolute land scoop of this summer.
Now.
I used to handle the cash but I realized my time is worth money.
I would go to the bank stand in the queue.
Carrying the money back.
And put the cash in the envelope because that's the way the staff like it.
Now Armour Guard does it all and it costs less than doing it myself.
By the way.
Thanks Steve.
Do what I did.
Call Armour Guard for a free brochure.
Here in the port of Eden.
Green Seas tuner isn't just a livin' tin and unbruised.
It's canned on the spot.
Green Seas tuner.
Fresh from Eden.
The graveyards are cliff locked harbour with a narrow entrance.
The country around is harsh and to this day uninhabited.
Along the lonely coastline disintegrating and forgotten are the graves of many Japanese
divers.
There's a deceptive calm at the moment.
It's high water.
When the tide changes it churns up dangerous foaming seas that trap so many of the early
divers.
Beneath the surface the warm tropical waters team with fish.
One of the most spectacular is the anemone or clownfish.
They're entirely dependent on the sea anemones for protection.
The tentacles of this flower like animal are covered with thousands of small stinging cells
capable of killing any other fish.
With an immunity to the poison the very territorial anemone fish spend most of their time chasing
one another before retreating into the tentacles of their host.
The gregarious and playful dolphins race Malcolm's boat back across King Sound to one of the
oldest pearl farms on the coast at Signet Bay.
The men working on the raft are operating on oysters that are too old for a nucleus
and so a plastic half spheres glued to the shell.
The shells kept in baskets below the raft until it's needed.
The technician eases the mantle from the shell and up to a dozen beads are glued in place.
In nine months the irritation has been coated with naga.
Although not so valuable half pearls are always in demand for modern jewellery.
Bruce Farley from Robuck Deep Pearls grows some half pearls each year for his buyers.
After they're cut from the shell it's up to the imagination and artistry of the jeweller
to create the finished pieces.
Before heading back to Broome Malcolm's keen to catch some fish for the crocodiles at his
research station.
Craig drags in a good tuna and now the barracuda are on the bite.
Out in Robuck Bay off Broome the harvest is in progress and the pearl is reaping the benefit
of their hard work, huge expenses and great risks.
The big operators now work off their own boats out at sea over their leases.
The shell seeded two years earlier is collected by the divers.
The baskets are quickly filled and the heavy load brought to the surface with air filled
bags.
After cleaning the oysters are stored in huge tanks with fresh continuously circulating
sea water.
Upon opening they're wedged and passed to one of the Japanese technicians.
Methodically from each shell he lifts a glistening pearl.
If the mollusk is still young and healthy it's reseeded with a nucleus and returned
to the bottom for a further two years.
Shell too weak or too old is rejected by the technicians for reseeding and will be sold
for mother of pearl buttons.
The owner of the farm probes for the cultured pearl before cleaning the shell.
Strict control of the industry limits the amount of shell taken.
This has led to a worldwide shortage of shell for ornaments and buttons.
Monday at seven on home and away this girl will stop at nothing to blacken the name of
her father's fiance.
She's already stolen a private letter but now she's been handed the ultimate weapon.
A secret from the woman's past that will shatter her dad and wreck the relationship.
Will her cruel plan succeed?
What is the secret that could end the affair?
Home and away Monday on seven.
Super soft cuddly for the whole family.
Feel the difference, smell the difference and with a choice of three fragrances it's
a real winner.
There's only one a strike can't find it.
Raised in Queensland not overseas no it's gotta be.
Golden circle please.
Give me that lucky country flavor.
Give me goodness in every way.
Give me golden circle.
Give me sunshine every day.
I could do with a break.
All the break with Angoo-ree.
I could do with a break.
Angoo-ree tea.
I could do with a break.
I could do with a break.
It's just about Angoo-ree tea.
The light does this to me I go for Angoo-ree.
A great tasting cup of Angoo-ree tea.
Angoo-ree is good tea.
This is Watson and this is Holmes.
You would think they were just a pair of playful cats but they are indeed the world's most
skillful sleuths.
So at dinner time.
In elementary.
It's dine.
New tasty meat varieties.
Chicken turkey liver and lamb veal liver.
Delicious.
A famous duo like Holmes and Watson wouldn't enjoy anything less.
For a cat that's really a person it's 100% delicious.
Dine.
Another lucrative spin off is the sale of pearl shell meat.
This is the muscle that holds the oyster shut.
Dried it's used in gourmet cooking.
The real prize at the end of each day are the exquisite perfectly round pearls.
Those with blemishes are worth only a few dollars but the best will bring several thousand
dollars each.
The harvest goes on for weeks and the pearl farms now gross millions of dollars every
year.
Today the pearling industry is bigger than ever.
The luggers have all but disappeared.
Replaced by big modern boats.
The most radical of these is a giant catamaran owned by Signet Bay Pearls.
The biggest operator in Australia is Paspale Pearls.
Their diving techniques are very efficient with up to eight divers working at once off
the Paspale Pearl.
The divers are now full time professionals.
Many of them are ex-Abalone divers who've moved to Broome for the good money and warmer
climate.
The cumbersome full diving suits have disappeared.
Goggles have replaced the helmet.
And flippers the boots.
Although the modern diver still uses the traditional basket.
The new breed of divers are tough and incredibly fit.
Coming for eight hours a day with only short breaks.
The ropes attached to the boat are each man's lifeline.
Moving along just above the seabed the diver searches for the camouflaged shell among the
seaweed, sponges and coral.
Without the rope he'd quickly tire and become disoriented.
It was 1971 when the new techniques were first tried off Broome.
And within two seasons the old hard hat divers had gone forever.
The risks working for shell are great.
Divers still at times get the bends.
Although now decompression chambers are available.
The dirty water, strong currents, sharks and sea snakes are ever present dangers.
Another ship, Paspeli 2, a magnificent modern vessel, rendezvous with the Paspeli Pearl.
The Paspeli company has a licence to collect around 100,000 pearl shells in a season.
Each shell is now seeded immediately on the boat and returned to the bottom on long lines
to recover for several months.
Then it's all moved to pearling leases east of Darwin.
It's a huge operation that must be carried out quickly and efficiently before the shell
dies.
The baskets retrieved from the long lines are loaded on board, cleaned and placed in
seawater tanks for the journey to the Northern Territory.
This highly efficient operation is a far cry from the old days when the sail powered luggers
first worked the coast and a lugger would send down one diver for a few tonne of shell.
The end result is of course the pearl, regarded by many as the most beautiful gem in the world.
Malcolm with his friends among the pearlers has been invited to watch the grading and
sorting of the harvest, a breathtaking spectacle few people ever see.
On the table, several million dollars worth of gleaming pearls and that's just a small
percentage of the total number produced in a season.
Nowhere else in the world can such magnificent gems be grown.
The colour, size and luster makes the highest grade immensely valuable.
Of the thousands of pearls grown every year, only a few are top grade.
Compared with the number of highest quality diamonds, large perfect cultured pearls are
very rare.
Pearls that grow abnormally, ending up as weird and wonderful shapes are called Kesish
and are in demand for distinctive modern jewellery.
And so from the humble oyster come the flawless gems for this exquisite necklace, valued at
around 150,000 US dollars.
No one can predict the future of the pearling industry.
Cyclones periodically wreck the farms, boats are lost and the shell beds can be instantly
wiped out by huge seas.
On some farms the pearlers are fighting a disease that's killing much of the shell.
But whatever the problems, Australia's pearling coast will always produce the best pearls
in the world.
The world through its
Next week on World of Artists we go climbing some mountains of adventure in India and New
Zealand. Hope you can join us then.
I'd like to remind everyone that some of the programs to follow are possibly not suitable
for children.