Broome with its vivid red soil and rock formations! Famous for its pearls we decided to be tourists and go out to Willies Pearl Farm and to the Pearl Luggers museum in town as part of a package deal. My new profile pic is of me holding a mega huge and expensive pearl! It was all very interesting and informative and of course they had the jewelry shop right there for you to browse in. Lots of "I want" ing there I can tell you!
My Precious!
Pearl Lugger on display in Broome's Chinatown district.
The Pearl Oysters that grow in this area of the world are a lot larger than others due to the rough conditions they have to survive through.
Willie Creek Pearl Farm
Pearl Oyster: Looks gross!
They impregnate the oyster with an irritant, often made from other shells, the oyster than secretes a product called nacre which surrounds the irritant and hardens and then tries to expel it - this is the pearl. One pearl farm at Denham is using gemstones and gold nuggets as the irritants to produce unusual jewellery pieces.
They have glued this 'irritants' on a shell that is no longer producing pearls, the nacre forms over the top and they then cut around it using the mother of pearl shell as the backing of the jewellery piece.
They took us for a tour out into the creek and its little lagoon which is protected from the open sea by a large sandbar.
The oysters are placed in this trap setting and hung from floats in the water and are turned regularly and cleaned every day. Turning helps the nacre to spread evenlya round the pearl creating a rounder coating and giving the pearl its shape.
Bright white sands and crystal blue, clear waters, Willie Creek is a beautiful spot.
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