Streeter

By Sal Balharrie

Making films and sailing - two of the greatest pursuits going - combining opportunities to travel, see the world, make new friends
and fill our blip, of a moment, on this planet with ever more rich experiences.
I’m lucky to have buckets of both. 

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been based in Darwin and the Tiwi Islands where I’m working on a feature film. We’ve been camping and filming on country. For non-Australian readers, ‘on country’ is a term used to describe spending time in a place where you’ve been welcomed by traditional owners.

Based on a long expanse of Melville Island beach, from my tent I took in 180 degree views of spectacular ocean. Sail west and you’d hit sunsets of the deepest gold.  Swim west and next stop is Madagascar. Stand still and if your patient you’ll become aware of waves punctuated by the occasional log. Watch more closely and that log, she sinks, that’s cos she’s a crocodile. T

On this beach there were three, their shapes rising and sinking. The crocs were watchful. I was told crocs love chicken, they can smell it from a mile away and the night we ate a chook curry and after the dishes had been washed, we took torches down to the beach.

It’s important to note we camped above the beach on a small rock ledge, about five feet of un-croc-scalable height and as we stood on the edge, shining our torches out to sea, three pairs of eyes, shone back at us like small stars. Next morning on the sand, I saw my first croc tracks along with a swish of tail shape. I was told this was a small one. I beg to differ.

In the Tiwi, mothers don’t let their babies play on the beach. No one swims.

Further along the beach, amongst the Paperbarks, stood a single Tamarind Tree. Just one. He was old and gnarled and rather beautiful. In northern Australia, Tamarind trees are markers of Asian traders and fishing activity, planted so that future or returning sailors might benefit from the fruit.

Now, before I jump into the history of pearls and luggers, let me circle back to the concept of the generosity of new friends. In Darwin I was to meet Pete and Vicktor who are utter champions. Friends of friends, they offered me a bedroom when Darwin was all but full and the budget of an independent film maker is not abundant.

If Pete’s home was on AirBnB – which it is not – but if it was, his balcony would get a 5 star rating – the view is spectacular and it was from here, I first spotted Chris Naden’s family owned, Broome built, pearling lugger STREETER. The boat motored past, a regal site. Laughter from the lugger drifted up through the trees, carried up to us as we took in the sight and sipped another G&T.

Pete has a good telescope. I could make out the name. I googled STREETER, I called Chris, he answered, an invitation was extended and I made a film.

So before you read on, why not come for a sunset voyage aboard the STREETER.

Named after Edwin Williams Streeter 'Father' of Broome’s pearling industry STREETER was part of the famous Streeter & Male Pearling fleet. Kim Male of Streeter & Male, remembers STREETER’s first crew were Malay with a Japanese diver named Mr Ejiri. Retrieved from Pearling in 1971, STREETER was relocated to Darwin to fish the northern waters as a barramundi and mackerel boat. Adventurer and film maker Malcom Douglas used STREETER in making the movie ‘Follow the Sun’ while exploring the Kymberly's and Top End.

There’s something about being on a Pearl Lugger that simply inspires romance. Solid and knowing underfoot, the Lugger seems ready to respond and like a dolphin, these boats make you smile.

We’ve written extensively on SWS about vernacular – how boat design responds to purpose and intent and how over time, both become an equation for beauty. I feel this in a Lugger – the beam, the sway of hull design, the heft. This is southern hemisphere nautical heritage of which to feel enormously proud.

And now, some history and a couple of additional films.

Made by The National Film Board 1949. Directed by Lee Robinson.

Beautifully filmed in black and white, this classic short film looks at pearling in the late 1940s. It goes on board the boats that work off the coast of Broome, Western Australia, from March to December each year. Crewed mainly by Aboriginal, Malay and Chinese men, they work six days a week from sun up to sun down—replenished occasionally by supply boats that also take away their hauls of pearl shell. The film captures the atmosphere, the detail and the danger involved in the search for shell as the divers in huge metal helmets and layers of clothing under their suits dive two at a time, each with one person tending their air hose and another their lifeline.

From its early days, Indigenous Australians have been crucial to Broome's long and industrious pearling industry. The Nero siblings from Walminyaru remember a lively, exciting and diverse Broome and say the town's pearling legacy lives on -- a legacy they hope will be treasured.

From about 1720, but possibly earlier, it is known that pearl fishers and trepang fishermen from Indonesia were the first people from the outside world to discover the northern coast of Australia.

They could make good hauls of shell and sea-cucumber (trepang) in the Torres Strait. They were trading with north coast Aborigines for hundreds of years prior to Australian colonization.

Pearl oysters are found in most tropical seas of the world and the gems have been sought since ancient times. There is evidence that Indonesian and Chinese sailors fished Australian waters for pearls in former times. There are Australian pearls in the treasuries of Indian princes, which are believed to be seven hundred years old.

The Aborigines do not appear to have placed any value on pearls. But they fished for oysters, which they ate. The pearl shell with its changing colours was used in their religious ceremonies and traded far to the south of the continent.

William Dampier, on his second voyage to New Holland in 1699, noted the existence of pearl shell and pearls which the natives used to trade with. They had an abundant supply. His report aroused little interest. Europeans did not begin to search for pearls in this area until nearly two hundred years later.

Pearl fishing as an industry in the colony began in 1861. In that year a ship, the Flying Foam sailed from Fremantle to Nickol Bay, not far from Roeburn. The crew collected oysters from rock pools at low tide, returning to port with 910 shells and 150 pearls.

The voyage must have scarcely have paid for itself, for many of the pearls were small and of little value. But there is a certain magic about seeking gold or gems, and it was not long before other ships were probing the north coast seeking pearls.

Landowners in the area got aborigines to collect the pearls and pearl shell for them. An early centre of the industry was at Cossack, near Nickol Bay.

Pearl divers

At first the oysters were gathered from the rocks or reefs, but Captain Taye, an American, soon ‘improved’ on this method. He employed some aborigines to go skin diving (bare pelt diving). They worked from small boats, diving into the water naked except for string bags around their waists.

Both men and women were employed. Sitting in the boat, they took a number of deep breaths, then slid into the water and allowed themselves to sink. In their hand they clasped a heavy stone and were able to descend to a depth of 20 metres. On the ocean floor the diver dropped the stone and grubbed up as many oysters as he could stow in his bag. Some could stay down for as long as two minutes.

At the end of the dive the diver rose slowly to the surface, dribbling air from his lungs and paddling with hands and feet. He could not rise fast, because of the weight of the oysters, but this was probably a good thing. It helped the diver to become adjusted to the difference in pressure between seabed and surface. Many of the divers were women, who were better than men at this work.

During the 1870's the employment of Aborigines was discouraged. The government passed regulations to protect them and forbade the use of women as divers.

Malay and Japanese men took their place. They also worked as deckhands because white people were very reluctant to undertake the difficult, dangerous and exhausting work involved in pearling. The conditions were harsh and the death rate high. Diving in particular was brutally exhausting work. Bad weather was an ever present danger. In 1876 a cyclone drowned 69 men in Exmouth Gulf. 

During the 1880's diving suits were introduced so that fishing could go on in deeper water. Now many divers became crippled by the ‘bends’ which are caused by diving too deep and coming up too fast. Working in a suit in deep water causes nitrogen from the air to be dissolved in the blood and coming too fast causes the blood to ‘boil’ as the nitrogen is expelled in a froth of small bubbles. If this does not kill at once it caused the joints to stiffen and lock. The diver is then crippled for the rest of his life.

Pearl shell

It was soon found that pearl shell was of greater value than pearl. In the early and mid 1900's a great deal of use was made of pearl shell for decorative purposes.

Pearl handled knives and pearl inlaid articles of all kinds were produced, especially in India and China. In the days before plastic was invented an enormous amount of shell was required just to produce pearl buttons. Large well formed shells were required for these purposes, though it was found that misshapen ones were more likely to produce a pearl. This gave strength to theory that the pearl is produced as a result of disease.

Many fishers were soon diving for shell alone, though they did not despise any pearls they found while doing so. The beds around Nickol Bay became exhausted and the pearling capital moved to Broome.

Pearl shell was selling for as much as $1,600.00 a tonne in the 1890's. Men from all over the Pacific were engaged in the industry. Many came from Indonesia, Malaya or Japan. White Australians were a rarity in that part of the world.

The industry flourished, in spite of the many deaths among Asian divers, to which the tombstones in Broome cemetery bear witness. Then World War II, together with the use of plastic and the beginning of the cultured pearling industry in Australia almost brought the pearling industry to a standstill.

Water mussel

Many centuries ago Chinese fishermen discovered the secret of making the water mussel produce a pearl. They learned to introduce an irritant into the body of the mussel, then leave it in suitable conditions so that a pearl was produced. They made little statuettes of the Buddha in bright tin and inserted them into the oyster and so produced the most beautiful pearl statuettes.

In 1891 Kōkichi Mikimoto, a Japanese scientist, experimented to find out if oysters could be farmed and made to produce a ‘crop’ of pearls. He inserted a small bead of mother of pearl into the body of the oyster hoping to induce the animal to cover the intruder with nacre. He had many failures at first but improved his technique until a large number of his treated oysters produced near perfect pearls.

Cultured pearls

Cultured Pearls, these are called, are not artificial but are real pearls. Artificial pearls are of thin glass, either coated or filled with a substance resembling nacre, often made from the scales of fish. Cultured pearls are both cheaper and more perfect than natural ones, and as a result the demand for the natural gem has fallen.

The demand for shell in the button industry has also fallen. The cultured pearl beds also produce shell, but today most buttons are made of synthetic resin (plastic), which has greatly reduced the demand for shell.

And so there you have the Lugger and the Pearl.

Thanks to Darwin friends Pete and Vicktor for your hospitality and generosity - two more brilliant humans I’d be hard pressed to find. Thanks guys.

And to Chris Naden for allowing me to capture the essence of STREETER - I hope you enjoy this film.
Book a Sunset Cruise here.

And with thanks to Pearl Lugger Cruises for much of the history.