NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA-BROOME
During the 1800s until the early decade of the 20th century, Broome was the pearling capital of the world. The introduction of diving suits and helmets further supported the expansion of the pearling industry in the region until after the Second World War when plastic buttons were introduced.
float parade in 2008, memorialising the first, second, and third wave
of Filipino settlers in Broome, won first prize.
July 2023.
West Kimberley was added in the National Heritage List in 2011 for its
significance to the pearling heritage to Australia’s history, culture,
and indigenous community. The Shinju Matsuri or Festival
of the Pearl is still celebrated in Broome, being an integral part of
the descendants’ lives while growing up.
Cultured pearl farms which employed new methods and safer practices to
harvest pearls led to a new era which started at Kuri Bay in 1956.
Custom-built pearling vessels later replaced luggers which gave rise
to giant industries. Broome and the Dampier Peninsula is still the
world’s finest producer of South Sea pearls.
“They have taken away our pearling, our pearling town, and that
really hurts because that made
this town… I think the city has
come too fast for us trying to grow with the development… the
beauty
about having a big family, and having a small community. It was
sharing things.”
- Elsta Foy
Manilamen descendant
Sulu Passages
Pearl-Diving in Souther...
