The pearl principle
ON THE REMOTE tip of Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula, the small, vibrant community of Cygnet Bay comes alive each spring to celebrate the end of the annual pearl harvest.
Now in its fifth year, the Pearl Harvest Festival is a three-day event run by Cygnet Bay Pearls, one of Australia’s oldest pearl farms. Located about 220km north of Broome on the pristine Kimberley Coast – where striking sandstone escarpments tower over white sandy beaches and lush mangrove forests give way to sweeping tidal creeks – the family-run farm has a history spanning more than 75 years.
The festival is the brainchild of James Brown, a third-generation pearl farmer and Cygnet Bay Pearls’ manager. His grandfather Dean Brown visited Cygnet Bay’s secluded beaches in 1946 while navigating the Kimberley Coast in a wooden pearl lugger. There, in offshore waters, Dean harvested the Australian South Sea pearl oyster for its shell. Also known as the silver-lipped oyster, this is one of the world’s largest and rarest pearl oyster species. It produces the prized South Sea pearl and its shell contains a hard inner iridescent layer of lustrous nacre – mother-of-pearl.
The Brown family has been harvesting oysters here ever since
