Around twelve years ago a mystery disease swept through the wild stocks of Pinctada maxima, the silver-lipped oyster that built the Kimberley pearling grounds off Western Australia. The die-off gutted a fishery that had supplied some of the largest, whitest South Sea pearls in the trade.

The response was to breed the oysters rather than dive for them. Six years on, those hatchery-raised shells are being harvested, and the pearls coming off the lines show the thick nacre and satiny luster that made Broome's name in the first place.

Industry turning a corner

At its peak the Kimberley coast supported sixteen independent pearl producers. The mid-2000s downturn cut that to three operators in WA. Demand has crept back, but local farms still fight to hold price against cheap, mass-produced shell out of Asia, where freshwater and lower-grade saltwater pearls flood the entry market. The Australian advantage was never volume. It is the size and water of a properly grown Pinctada maxima pearl, and that is what the surviving farms are betting on.