Broken Bay Pearls is a tiny Aussie company going head to head with the world’s biggest pearl producers

IN a tiny shed hidden away on a mangrove island just an hour north of Sydney, a tiny Aussie company is up against the world’s biggest pearl producer and beating them at their own game.

Harvesting pearls

WITH the precision of a surgeon Rose Crisp makes a small incision before carefully implanting a small bead and a tiny piece of slippery mantle into the oyster.

Her seeding of pearls continues year-round but now it is harvest time and nearby four burly blokes discuss politics, football — anything to distract them from the monotony of opening thousands of oysters by hand.

In this tiny shed hidden away on a mangrove island in the heart of Broken Bay, just an hour north of Sydney, a tiny Australian company is going head to head with the world’s biggest pearl producers and beating them at their own game.

The fruits of Broken Bay Pearls’ labour.

“Not many people know about us,” Broken Bay Pearls co-founder Ian Crisp said.

“Being oyster farmers we just like to do our own thing and stay in the background.”

What started as an idea, like a bit of grit in the back of his mind he could not quite shake, has become eastern Australia’s only pearl producer, growing the same Akoya oysters made famous by Japan.

Mr and Mrs Crisp , who still grow Sydney rock oysters in the Manning River, began researching pearl production in 1999.

Peter Cliftgets to work harvesting pearls from Brisbane Water off Woy Woy on the Central Coast.

With three other oyster farmers they formed Broken Bay Pearls in 2003 after identifying the pristine Brisbane Waters near Woy Woy as ideal pearl producing conditions.

“We’re about the same distance south of the equator as Japan is north,’’ Mr Crisp said.

“Freshwater is your enemy, Brisbane Waters is one of the few oceanic estuaries with not a lot of fresh water run-off.”

The company gets its oyster larvae, known as spat, from NSW Fisheries’ Centre for Excellence at Port Stephens and began just its sixth harvest at the weekend.

Rose Crisp inspects some of the hidden treasure.

General manager Peter Clift said it took about two years for the oysters to grow big enough to seed and another two years for the pearl to grow.

Mrs Crisp learned the delicate art of seeding, using a piece of Mississippi freshwater mussel shell refined to a perfect sphere and a small sliver of mantle from another oyster to kickstart the pearl process.

“We were interested in the pearl industry and we thought let’s give it a go,” Mr Crisp said.

“It’s been no easy ride and, just learning the whole process, there was a lot of trial and error. Even if you know the theory, you can still get it wrong.”

Peter Clift has a break outside the small shed where they process the oysters.

This year Broken Bay Pearls will harvest about 6000 double-seeded oysters, yielding an estimated 10,000 gem quality pearls.

They come in four main colours – gold, pink-white, silver-pink and white – and a thousand shades in between.

It will take another two months before all the pearls are colour matched and graded, with a finished strand retailing for between $4000 and $5000.

Tools of the trade... a knife and an oyster lead to necklaces and earrings.

“We’re trying to produce a high quality, natural pearl,” Mr Crisp said.

“In Australia, before we came along, the bottom of the market was full of imported pearls that had been bleached and dyed and at the top was the high quality South Sea pearls.

“We think there’s a fair gap in the market.”

Originally published as Broken Bay Pearls is a tiny Aussie company going head to head with the world’s biggest pearl producers