Broome Day 4: Pearls and Spices

Friday 2nd October 2014

There pearling industry has only really become synonymous with the pearls themselves in recent times. Originally it was in fact the shells in which the pearl grew that was the more valued and sellable item. The shell was tough and attractive enough that it could be used for solid jewellery and personal adornments. Traditionally the Indigenous folk of many countries would use it for adornment in rituals, rites and ceremonies. Nowadays the shells are only occasionally used in inexpensive objet d’art and jewellery. The big money is in the pearl. Pearls that are grown in precise conditions, with human intervention to ensure the best size and quality are known as Cultured Pearls.

This morning Ma was up and semi-coherent by quarter past 7 today. We took a leisurely breakfast before the bus picked us up at 8am to ride an hour down an unsealed road by through some old stations to Willie Creek Pearl Farm.

A station, very loosely, is a rural section of land belonging to one specific family or trust of people. It is something like a farm in many respects. Except a station is much, much larger and much, much more isolated. A station may be, and often is, a section of desert on which cattle or horses roam. There may be pigs or sheep. But  stations are found mostly in the north of Australia. I don’t know much about them because I come from too far south. The station on the way to Willie Creek was the first I’ve ever seen and I truly hope I have not described it wrong. Up north there are wild horses, camels, emus, cattle and pigs roaming around, as well as all the normal wild animals. I was entranced and in awe at how beautiful the rusty brush of the Kimberley is. As always I was thanking life for landing me in Western Australia!

At Willie Creek we learned about the manufacture and creation of saltwater pearls, the difference between them and freshwater pearls and how to identify the ‘5 Virtues’ of pearls which is how they are graded. Young Ben taught us about the pearling industry of Broome and showed us the anatomy of a fresh pearl and pearl oyster. Driver Gaz took us out in to the creek looking for crocodiles and barramundi and Boatman Gaz showed us the enemies, viruses and threats to pearl shells which exist in the coastal waters off Western Australia due to the old illegal boats which enter our waters from the Asian islands north of Australia. In their natural habitat north of our beautiful country are predators which attack and eat the bad things which attack and destroy our pearl shells. Unfortunately the predators don’t come south with the bad things so we have no way except our human intervention to stand in between the bad things destroying our ocean.

Driver Gaz shared damper and tea for morning tea overlooking the creek. Damper is a traditional Australian scone-style bread that used to be made by ‘Bushmen’ (Aussies like to be ultra-speccy with their names!!). It’s basically Self-raising flour, sugar and water or milk (a scone mixtur-ish) that when mixed it was once wrapped in foil and put in the coals of a fire to cook. It was eaten with tea (boiled in a Billy can over the fire) and sustained the bushman during long days or bouts working on isolated stations. (Again I hope this is accurate, I’m 80% confident it is.)

So we ate Damper and learned some more things, like how to guess prices of pearls, what is special about Australian pearls and would we like to take a ride in a helicopter? It was the cheapest price we’ve ever seen but Ma has always hated the idea of helicopters. She thinks they are unnatural and never holds back telling us how she dislikes the idea of them.

I said, “It’s the cheapest price you’ll ever see.”

She said, ” True”

“It’s only a seven minute flight.”

That isn’t long.”

“I’m off to the loo. You can decide. I’m happy either way.”

When I came back she said “We are going up.”

It was incredible. Very scenic. Well worth the money and probably my highlight of the trip.

 

We arrived back in town early in the afternoon. Ma and I bought our souvenirs. Her a rug and camel statue and for myself I just found some pretty rocks on the side of the road, as well as a scarf and some soap. I bought a flowy red dress, which was very different to what I’ve seen in Perth. I wore it out to dinner that evening to Matso’s my second big thing for Broome. 

 

I was super excited for Matso’s Brewery as they sell a chili beer which my younger brother B-Dizzle raves about. We are both more than slightly addicted to our chili so I was frothing at the mouth over the idea alone. First we tried a taster tray of all the beers on tap, I enjoyed most but Ma only finished 2 and handed me half of each of the rest. As I had my two pints of Chili Beer Ma had a few more tasters and a pint of Mango and we both had Thali from the Curry Hut which serves on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The beer was exquisite. The Atmosphere was divine. The company was sensational. It was very well worth the wait and anticipation for me.

Broome 3: The Hen’s Party

A short history of Brome:

European explorers discovered the area in the late 1600’s but did not consider the land of value to establish a colony.

Through a series of events it was discovered late in the 1800’s that the largest naturally producing pearl shells were locally found off the coast in this area of Western Australia and so lead to the development of the pearling industry.

1883 The state government acknowledged the large amount of pearl shell being exported from the locality and officially recognised the townsite of Broome, named by Sir John Forrest after Governor of Australia Sir Frederick Broome.

1889 An underwater telegraph cable was laid from Singapore to Australia. The site where the cable rose out of the water was named after it, Cable Beach, which was only a short distance from the Broome townsite.

Specialist divers and pearl luggers came from all around the world, the nationalities in prominence included Japanese, Europeans and Manilans (Filipinos).

Thursday 9th 2014

I haven’t been sleeping so well so I didn’t take a walk on the beach today. When Ma and I were ready today we caught a bus in to town. This time we chose to have our morning coffee at a cute cafe called Ra Ra’s and shared a slice of rosemary shortbread with it. We sat on cushions under Chakra flags and enjoyed the coolness before we started in the heat of the Kimberley.

Ma wanted to walk to the Museum today. She was feeling energetic since our big walk the day before. On the other hand I was feeling somewhat bad at having made her walk so much, so was pleased at her insistence today, the distance looked relatively decent to me but I didn’t mind. This walk was again close to the 5km mark and halfway there Ma agreed to call it even, neither of us would complain about the others walking ideas anymore.

The museum was awesome and very insightful. The history of Broome and the pearling industry was eye-opening. As someone who loves supporting equality and embracing other cultures, I am really interested in the oppressive settlers and earlier generations of Australia.

Did you know? European pearling masters wouldn’t send their own sons diving for pearl shells due to the disabilities and injuries they would incur, yet they had no qualms with allowing the Indigenous Australians or ‘fatalistic Asians’ to dive.

Did you know? European pearling masters would abduct local Indigenous people and hold them captive on rural sites slightly inland to sell to other masters, then force them to dive from first light to after sun down. When divers become too ill to dive they were discarded on isolated beaches to try to survive alone.

Pearl shells were mostly sold to make buttons in to, but could also be used for decorative purposes and as part of womens jewellery and adornments. Nowadays pearl shells are crushed to create the pearl effect in car paint, the shimmer in women’s make-up and (I think) something to do with sun cream.

Broome was bombed in World War 2 by the Japanese, although I cannot recall why.

At the museum we saw the largest domestic shell collection and mum was swooped by a magpie.

Some time later we found ourselves back at Cable Beach, dodging waves while our bathers filled with sand.. With that and the jellyfish everywhere it wasn’t long before we were actually back by the pool and relaxing until it was time to get ready for the Hen’s party.

Ry picked us up at 5.30pm, took us on a tour through Cable Beach Estate to pick up some of our old boarding school friends who lived locally. The party was at the Mangrove Hotel overlooking Roebuck Bay. The setting was wonderful and the evening was the perfect temperature. It was our first chance to catch up with Sho, the Bride-To-Be, since we arrived in Broome. She was looking so content and it was great to see her and catch with her.

Sho has a very large family and a lot of the ladies of it were at this party. Seeing the family, as well as the many dozens of ladies from my home town was joyous. I had a bit of an inner sadness throughout the evening as many people would begin talking to me and I wouldn’t recall them. Ma was good and would introduce them to me in a way that wasn’t rude or obvious to them what she was doing. One or two of the ladies, like Sho’s mother and good friends of Ma’s knew I have been having trouble and would take more time when speaking to me. Admittedly I am fairly much back to ‘normal’ or ‘the way I was’ yet the memories that aren’t here now are ones I will need to re-establish and so some people it was like meeting for the first time.

Ry stayed with me, or I stayed with her for the evening. I hope I didn’t get in her way, but I just so enjoyed her company and her familiarness as the afternoon turned into evening and my tiredness overcame me. We left after 8pm, Ry dropping us off on her way home. I heard later the party went on to the Roebuck Bay Hotel, and then Skyalla (the nightclub). It must have been a big one!!