"You get more pearl for your dollar," Liz Grist as says with a smile as she demonstrates sizing pearls by passing them through a sieve. A size 7.5 pearl may be fractionally smaller than an 8. A teardrop pearl has more nacre (mother of pearl) because of its shape. But, "a teardrop is not worth as much as a round pearl" adds Grist.
Seated at a white table in the white Pearl Room at Broken Bay Pearl Farm, I'm learning how pearls are graded. The white environment is important Grist explains as "the pearls reflect the colour of their surroundings".
The Pearl Farm tour begins with our tour guide Marina Riley outlining Australia's pearling history. I'm surprised to learn that Broome in Western Australia was "built on the back of the button". Mother of pearl was the button of the time.
The Pearling Act of 1922 prohibited pearl cultivation in Australia. The Act was repealed in 1949, paving the way for the establishment of cultured pearl farms.
Enter three generations of the Brown family. Dean Brown, his sons Lyndon and Bruce and grandson James, pioneered pearl farming in Western Australia. Lyndon was the first non-Japanese person to culture a pearl. Today, his nephew and marine biologist James Brown runs Pearls of Australia comprising Cygnet Bay Pearls in Western Australia and Broken Bay Pearls in New South Wales.
A huge South Sea oyster shell with its smooth lustrous mother of pearl lining weighs heavily in my hand. Farmed in Western Australia Riley describes it as the "Great Dane" of oysters.
Here, in the only pearl farm in New South Wales, they farm the much smaller, more delicate Akoya oyster, or "Chihuahua" of oysters.
Pearl farming is a complicated, complex business subject to the vagaries of the weather. Riley describes how the 2020 floods caused devastating stock losses. The oysters couldn't survive the inundation of fresh water. In the 2022 floods, Brown's team managed to save most of the stock by moving the oysters to safer salty waters.
Sunlight reflects off the rippling water as Rose, an aluminium barge, carries our small group down the expansive Hawkesbury River towards an oyster lease. The boat idles at Spectacle Island where we admire the thick native bush. It's as it was when Europeans first arrived. We cruise on. A cormorant takes flight. A train thunders noisily overhead as we glide beneath the Hawkesbury River Bridge.
At the oyster lease, round black football-like floats black bob up and down in the water. Riley explains that from each float a basket of oysters hovers 300mm above the seabed. Oyster hatchlings grow for two years before they are ready for seeding, a complex skilful operation.
The oysters recover from the operation and spend the next two years laying nacre over the nucleus (seed). If all goes well, this long process results in a perfectly round lustrous pearl.
I'm shocked to hear how few pearls result from millions of hatchlings. And even then, not every pearl is perfectly round with a perfect colour.
Back in the Pearl Room, Liz passes round examples as she outlines the five virtues of pearls. Graders look at a pearl's shape, colour, size, surface and lustre. They all have a direct bearing on a pearl's value. Broken Bay Pearls adds two more virtues to the list. They pride themselves on growing pearls that are 100% pure (purity). And you know exactly where they come from (provenance).
On my way out, I admire the fine jewellery display. Each piece features one or more beautiful lustrous pearls. I'm in awe of the time and effort it took to produce these beautiful gems.
If You Go
The Broken Bay Farm is at Mooney Mooney on the NSW Central Coast. Two-hour tours cost from $85.
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