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The Banfield family, have been educating visitors to Broome about the history and modern-day workings of the Australian South Sea Cultured Pearl industry for 30 years.
Pearling is a fully allocated quota based fishery that is regulated by the by Department of Fisheries. In addition to its commercial quota, Willie Creek Pearls is the owner of two unique units of ‘wildshell’ (shell captured from the wild) quota that was allocated by the Department, to be farmed at Willie Creek Pearl Farm specifically for tourism and educational purposes allowing guests to unlock the mysteries of the pearling industry.
In 2015, the rare opportunity arose to purchase additional wild shell quota, allowing one of only 17 commercial pearling licenses in Western Australia to be issued to Willie Creek Pearls. The Banfield family seized this opportunity to continue their pearl journey. Originally wheat and sheep farmers from Tincurrin, the move to a fully-fledged commercial pearling operation saw them come full-circle, and return to their deep roots in primary production.
This now means that Willie Creek Pearls undertakes its farming operations at multiple sites, including sea leases 10 nautical miles north of Willie Creek off the coast of Quondong Point, as well as at Willie Creek itself.
At the sea lease, there are numerous sub-surface long lines where ‘seeded’ oysters are ‘hung’ in panels so that they can thrive and grow in an area of the water column that is rich in nutrients and micro algae. Here they are cared for meticulously by our pearling team of skippers and deck hands. In addition to this there is series of ‘bottom lines’, which are on the floor of the sea-bed. These are used for pre and pos operative pearl production husbandry practices such as oyster conditioning, resting and turning and oysters in this area are attended to by our divers. The substrate of Willie Creek’s bed itself is not suitable for these practices and in addition there are resident crocodiles that make diving too hazardous.
Willie Creek’s Pearling Masters select various cohorts of shell from the commercial stocks that are due for harvest and have reached the end of their pearl-producing life cycle, and these are transferred to Willie Creek for harvesting as part of the Willie Creek Pearl Farm Tour as well as our Elizabeth Quay Showroom. Willie Creek Pearl Farm remains one of the Western Australia’s most awarded tourist attractions.
Willie Creek’s land-based state of the art Aquaculture Facility was designed and constructed in 2017 and is used as a hatchery to capture naturally occurring spawning events. This is done by selecting brood stock so that juvenile oysters can be created and reared to supplement the wild stocks that are fished annually from the various beds around the 80 Mile Beach area and the Lacepede Channel. Learn more about the hatchery here.
During other times of the year other technical activities are also undertaken here by our expert technicians, such as:
At certain times of the year this provides guests visiting Willie Creek Pearl Farm with an extremely rare opportunity to obtain additional insight into the fascinating process of producing the world’s finest pearls, that historically has been done behind closed doors or in remote and inaccessible locations
As a result of the progressive work done in our commercial pearling venture, we have recently harvested a stunning 19.7mm Australian South Sea Cultured Pearl on our Pearl Farm tour. This exceptionally rare pearl has been valued at $75,000. It's the most valuable single pearl Willie Creek has harvested at the Pearl Farm.
Willie Creek’s commercial pearling operations complete the ‘shell to showroom’ experience enjoyed by thousands of guests visiting Broome, the pearling capital of Australia, every year. As well as the stunning Australian South Sea Cultured Pearls produced by Willie Creek, inside Willie Creek showrooms you’ll also find a vast array of the finest pearls from all around the world. These include pearls from South-east Asia, China and Tahiti.
Willie Creek Pearls is proudly a member of the Pearl Producers Association
