Willie Creek Pearl Farm was our destination today. We were the first to be picked up by our bus driver, Ann, who said that she would have a full busload to take on the 45km journey to Willie Creek. Willie Creek Pearl Farm is around 10km off the sealed Cape Leveque Road, but after the recent rain, the sandy road was quite wet and boggy. It was a bit of dodging and weaving around puddles of water to reach our final destination.
As soon as we arrived we were met by our tour guide, Lisa, who took us to a room that held large water tanks used for spawning. Lisa was a great story teller and we learnt about the whole process from spawning to pearl harvesting that takes around 2-3 years. I had no idea that it was such a labour intensive business, and can understand now why quality cultured pearls are so expensive. The pearls at Willie Creek are saltwater pearls as opposed to freshwater pearls grown in the South Pacific region. One of the things that really surprised me was that lines of oysters are brought from the ocean on to a boat, every two weeks, to be individually cleaned of barnacles and molluscs. I won't go into the whole process but you should google it yourselves sometime as it is very interesting. Another interesting thing we found out is that the pearl shell, mother of pearl, is being trialled as a bone graft substitute. It is ground down and turned into a paste and early trials have got the scientists very excited.
After the video presentation by Lisa we were taken to our waiting boat for a cruise around the bay (how incredibly blue is the Indian Ocean!) and a stop at one of the oyster lines so that we could be shown how they clean the oyster shells. As I mentioned before, it is very labour intensive and hard work. It was mentioned that the people that work at Willie Creek are all locals and not backpackers as it is a more reliable workforce and it is a family run business.
Once our cruise was finished it was time to head back to the main building for tea, coffee and their famous Willie Creek Damper. They were very yummy and our choice of the Cold Pressed Coffee was the perfect accompaniment.
Lisa once again gathered us all together for our final presentation to show us how the pearl is harvested from the oyster shell. It is also a very sensitive process to extract the pearl and then replace that pearl with an imitation the same size so that another pearl can be grown. The oyster will produce three pearls and each one will be slightly bigger and the quality will decrease. So bigger is not better in the pearl world! The pearl that Lisa harvested in front of us was quite big and it was the oysters last pearl. (We had it valued later in the day and it was valued at $750.) Lisa also extracted the prized pearl meat from the oyster. This pearl meat sells for a premium right around the world.
After this final presentation we were taken into the showroom where we were shown some examples of size, colour, lustre and shape of the oysters. We were shown a giant pearl that was valued at $150,000. It was the largest that the farm had ever produced and was not for sale. We were invited to look around the showroom and try on anything that caught our eye. We chose to go and eat our pre-ordered lunch and come back after lunch because there were a lot of people inside the showroom.
Our grazing platters were delicious, one was Seafood and the other was Meat. I forgot to get a photo but the seafood included smoked salmon, crumbed calamari, fresh prawns, and a little marinated pearl meat, with a side salad and dressings along with a couple of pieces of baguette. The meat platter consisted of rare roast beef, prosciutto, paté and salami with accompaniments. After we had devoured our platters we made our way into the showroom to browse the beautiful collection of pearls.
Now, the burning question is, did I buy something? Of course I did! The 15% discount across the whole store made it a no brainer 😜.
I love it as it is so me. It is so weird because my eyes fell on it the minute I walked into the showroom. I tried on many more but kept going back to this one. I had no idea though, until the sales lady pointed it out, that the little diamond chips are Argyle Champagne Diamonds. I got my Argyle Diamond after all.....
This was a really great tour and I'm so pleased that we chose it. Tours on our journey around Oz have been an excellent choice for us. Undoubtably, we could have driven ourselves to Willie Creek Pearl Farm but to be able to sit back and enjoy the journey with a bus driver who regaled us with a lot of interesting facts about Broome made it very worthwhile and we have found this with all the tours we have participated in.
Tomorrow is Cable Beach day as the weather has improved considerably and it will be lovely to soak up the sun and wriggle my toes in the white sand and splash around in that bluest of blue ocean.
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