It seems Australia’s claim of being the “Lucky Country” may actually be grounded more in fact than in my misplaced sense of jingosium.

            It is a nation renowned for its vast reserves of natural resources. From uranium to bauxite, wool to wheat, what’s Australian seems to be bigger, better and more plentiful than just about any place on this increasingly depleted planet.

            Australia is the biggest diamond producer by volume than any other country in the world and the only reliable source of the highly sought-after pink diamonds.

            The Victorian gold riches of the last century drew countless fortune-seekers to those distant shores and the country still draws people from the world over to fossick around the world’s largest deposits of quality opal.

            What people are not aware of, however, is that Australia is also home to the world’s largest pearls or that it was the search of these treasures of the sea that drove a minor rush of its town.

            When European pearlers arrived in Australia in the last century, they found that the Aborigines were already skilled in diving and gathering oysters.

            They became the first of Australia’s commercial pearl divers. When their numbers were not plentiful, they were herded up from nearby islands and forced to work as slave laborers, an abhorrent practice known as “blackbirding”.

            In those days mother-of-pearl was what the fleets sought, used for the making of buttons.

            By the end of the century, Australia had become the world’s major source of mother-of-pearl and discovery of a pearl was considered just a stroke of good luck.

            When the practice of black birding was outlawed, Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos were hired to take up the slack, but it was the Japanese divers who were to have the biggest influence on the industry.

            The invention of plastic brought about the demise of the mother-of-pearl button industry. Those who relied on the industry for a living were virtually forced into pearls.

            Im1956 an Australian, American and Japanese joint venture called Pearls Pty Ltd established the first cultured pearl farm at Kuri Bay. Wild pearls were still needed, however, and it was the Japanese who made up the bulk of the diving work force.

            In their bulky metal helmets and lead boots, the divers risked sharks, cyclones and, more commonly, the “bends”.

            When a diver works in deep water for a long time, nitrogen in the air he breathes is absorbed into his bloodstream. If he comes up too quickly, the nitrogen in the vicinity of large joints are especially susceptible to bubbling, which causes severe, sometimes incapacitating, pain in those areas. Other symptoms include nausea and abdominal pain; in severe cases, coma and death result.

            By 1970 Australia was producing 60 percent of the world’s South Sea pearls. It was at this time that Australian divers gained the as Japanese colleagues.

            Using the revolutionary hookah equipment-a system in which air was pumped through pipes to divers clad in lightweight wet suit, face mask and air regulators-the local divers began to take over.

            The Japanese connection, however, was never entirely severed. To this day they dominate as seeding technicians on Australian pearl farms. Japan also represents the Australian pearls industry’s biggest market, but this is too showing signs of change. Producers are increasingly cutting out the Japanese middlemen and selling directly to the ultimate markets in other Asian countries, Europe and the United States.

            In 1990, the state government of Western Australia passed the Pearling Act, limiting the amount of wild shells which can be collected. As a result, producers have begun to look to hatchery produced shells as a way of increasing their stocks.

            While this technology is still in it’s infancy, it may be the only route for Australian producers wanting to increase their production levels.

            One reason why Australian farms are looking into perfecting hatchery techniques is that neighbors Indonesia, and to a lesser extent the Philippines, are beginning to see pearl farms as a lucrative industry and the Japanese are investing heavily.

            While these countries would appear to have an edge over the Australians, with cheaper labor and operation costs and the absence of quotas, the Aussies seem relatively unperturbed by the competition.

            Where Australia produces those monster pearls of 11mm and up, Indonesian pearls range in size from 8mm-11mm. the Indonesian pearls are also of a generally lower quality and are more yellowish than their Australian counterparts and lack their lustrous silver color.

            While many consumers will jump at the cheaper prices of the Indonesian and Philippines pearls, the Australians seem content to stick with the quality end of the market.

            In all, it would seem, the world is well and truly the Australian pearl industry’s oyster and while it is, the Australian oyster- or more specially, the pinctada maxima- will bear the world’s preferred pearl.