Cyril Roger Brossard
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2012
- Messages
- 408
As seen here.
Flip Prior, The West Australian
December 7, 2012, 2:08 pm
Tall and freckly with lily-white skin, James Brown grew up in the bush running wild with Aboriginal kids, speaking Bardi almost as fluently as he did English.
Almost from birth, his world revolved around tropical water; exploring colourful reefs and the ancient islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago, painted black by the roaring tides and stained pindan-red at their craggy peaks.
"You take it for granted as a child - you think everybody grows up like this," he says, his mind as reflective as the calm, turquoise waters at Cygnet Bay.
"We spent all day every day just roaming around - swimming, spearing, fishing and diving. Life revolved around the sea, and my family's life revolved around it as well."
James was never pressured into taking the helm of his family's company, Cygnet Bay Pearls, but saltwater runs through his blood and the compulsion to produce the perfect pearl drives him as much as it did his forefathers.
The third generation to run operations from the Dampier Peninsula, 213km north of Broome, the 34-year-old has steered the farm through the pearling industry's brief highs and crashing lows and foresees a bright future after diversifying.
At the height of the decade-long pearling boom in Broome, there were at least 16 companies farming pearls in WA waters. Now, there are just two: the dynastic Paspaley Group and Autore Group, including Clipper Pearls and Cygnet Bay, which still produces about 30,000 fine, lustrous pearls a year.
Cygnet Bay's success story begins more than 30 years before James was born, when his adventurous grandfather Dean Murdoch Brown sailed from Perth into the treacherous waters of King Sound in an old wooden lugger.
In 1946, the pearling lugger fleet, devastated by war, was struggling to rebuild and the once-lucrative shelling industry in Broome was a shadow of its former glory.
Finding his way to Sunday Island, Dean set up home among the Bardi mob and started fishing for mother-of-pearl shells in the 1950s. But with the advent of plastics, the enterprise entered its death throes: shell was no longer needed for buttons and buckles and became virtually worthless.
Brown was scratching out a meagre living when a ship owned by Pearls Pty Ltd - an American-owned company with Japanese and Australian shareholders farming cultured pearls in Kuri Bay - ran aground on Montgomery Reef.
With expert knowledge of the Kimberley's unpredictable waters, Dean started running supplies for the company and soon sensed a new opportunity to make money.
In 1959, he dumped his middle son, Lyndon, at Shenton Bluff, on the northern tip of Cygnet Bay, with an elderly Bardi Aboriginal couple to help him survive and instructions to work out how to culture pearls.
Against the odds, the 21-year-old became the first non-Japanese person in history to do so: a year after seeding the Pinctada maxima shells, he prised them open and found cultured pearls growing inside.
The family applied for Australia's first cultured pearl license and moved operations to Cygnet Bay. By the mid-1960s, James' parents Bruce and Alison had arrived to help out Lyndon and his Japanese wife, Schizuko Umuszawa.
Living side-by-side in paperbark huts in remote bush overlooking pristine waters, the couples slowly and painstakingly built their farm. Forced to live self-sufficiently, they grew vegetables, kept goats and chickens and worked with the Bardi people to build a community.
The shallow reefs at Cygnet Bay, virtually untouched by human hand, turned out to be perfect for growing pearls: twice-daily, massive tidal flows delivered constant nutrients and clean water, making for robust, healthy shells.
The family became industry pioneers; Bruce and Lyndon introduced the first non-hard hat divers in the 1970s and Bruce and Alison opened Broome's first pearl shop in 1971 that, unlike today, bombed for a lack of tourists.
James' was born on September 10, 1978, two years after his older sister. At 12, after a carefree childhood, he was sent away to Scotch College in Perth: "It was a bit of a culture shock, I can tell you," he says.
"Going from Cygnet Bay to Claremont, in the thick of Perth's high society ? the hardest thing I found to adjust to was socialising with the rich kids.
"On the first day at school in Year 8, I had to learn to tie my tie - but I also had to learn how to tie my shoelaces because I'd never had a pair of shoes."
James was not a conscientious student - he claims he was "too busy" to read books growing up. But at James Cook University in Townsville, he found a natural fit for his love of the ocean: a "mind-blowing" marine biology degree that he loved so much, he stayed an extra year.
Returning to Cygnet Bay at 21 with a head full of ideas, he was brought back to earth during a tough apprenticeship under farm managers and technicians Billy Gibson and "Jacko", a salty pearling skipper.
"They didn't go lightly on me ? they expected me to come back with airs and graces," James says. "You know, here's the silver spoon boy coming back after wasting his life at university while we have been slogging away, busting our arses."
James survived, getting his hands dirty as he learned every aspect of pearl farming over several years - from fixing engines to seeding shells.
In 2005, he became farm manager and was put in charge of 60 staff. Life was busy but happy; by then, he had met his now-wife Sarah, a teacher, and in 2006 his first son Dean was born, followed by Shae in 2007.
The pearling industry was also peaking: "Back then, people used to say that pearling was a license to print money," he said. But like in all boom times, the bust would come - and it hit swiftly and hard: "I rode the wave of pearling from its dizzy heights to the low it is in now," James says.
First, oyster oedema disease swept through WA's tropical waters, killing millions of juvenile shells and successful businesses overnight: "That was the end of Kailis," he says.
Then in 2008, the global financial crisis struck, with devastating effects on the international wholesale market: "Our cashflow stopped overnight, with 60 dedicated employees."
It was the Brown's trigger to diversify. James convinced his reluctant family to open their working farm to the public in an Australian first, converting Lyndon's old homestead into showroom, reception and cafe.
Divers' quarters were turned into rustic accommodation, old pearling boats converted for tours and new eco-tents constructed with sweeping views over the water to encourage visitors to stay and explore. For the first time in 25 years, Cygnet Bay also started selling its product domestically, opening a pearl retail store in Broome with the world's biggest pearl, harvested in 2004, prominently displayed.
In 2009, James started the not-for-profit Kimberley Marine Research Station to both indulge his love of marine science and encourage research in Cygnet Bay and the wider Kimberley waters.
It was a canny move; with millions of dollars from the State Government's investment into the Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy hitting the ground this year, scientists have started flocking to the region to study its pristine waters in research projects likely to last years.
James says next year, Cygnet Bay will open its new hatchery to try to breed more robust spat shells resistant to deadly viruses. He is also pushing to create a new gourmet market for raw pearl meat flesh instead of frozen, targeting top-end restaurants in Perth.
Like the rest of his family, James is at Cygnet Bay for the long haul - it is the only home he has ever known. He hopes his children will choose to follow in his footsteps and become the fourth generation of Browns to run a sustainable, successful business.
"I don't think there is any other aquaculture company in the country, perhaps the world, which has operated continuously in one site as long as Cygnet Bay Pearls," he says.
"That's the essence of sustainability and environmental responsibility, as far as I am concerned ? the Australian pearling industry, and Cygnet Bay, is something all West Australians can be proud of."
Flip Prior, The West Australian
December 7, 2012, 2:08 pm
Tall and freckly with lily-white skin, James Brown grew up in the bush running wild with Aboriginal kids, speaking Bardi almost as fluently as he did English.
Almost from birth, his world revolved around tropical water; exploring colourful reefs and the ancient islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago, painted black by the roaring tides and stained pindan-red at their craggy peaks.
"You take it for granted as a child - you think everybody grows up like this," he says, his mind as reflective as the calm, turquoise waters at Cygnet Bay.
"We spent all day every day just roaming around - swimming, spearing, fishing and diving. Life revolved around the sea, and my family's life revolved around it as well."
James was never pressured into taking the helm of his family's company, Cygnet Bay Pearls, but saltwater runs through his blood and the compulsion to produce the perfect pearl drives him as much as it did his forefathers.
The third generation to run operations from the Dampier Peninsula, 213km north of Broome, the 34-year-old has steered the farm through the pearling industry's brief highs and crashing lows and foresees a bright future after diversifying.
At the height of the decade-long pearling boom in Broome, there were at least 16 companies farming pearls in WA waters. Now, there are just two: the dynastic Paspaley Group and Autore Group, including Clipper Pearls and Cygnet Bay, which still produces about 30,000 fine, lustrous pearls a year.
Cygnet Bay's success story begins more than 30 years before James was born, when his adventurous grandfather Dean Murdoch Brown sailed from Perth into the treacherous waters of King Sound in an old wooden lugger.
In 1946, the pearling lugger fleet, devastated by war, was struggling to rebuild and the once-lucrative shelling industry in Broome was a shadow of its former glory.
Finding his way to Sunday Island, Dean set up home among the Bardi mob and started fishing for mother-of-pearl shells in the 1950s. But with the advent of plastics, the enterprise entered its death throes: shell was no longer needed for buttons and buckles and became virtually worthless.
Brown was scratching out a meagre living when a ship owned by Pearls Pty Ltd - an American-owned company with Japanese and Australian shareholders farming cultured pearls in Kuri Bay - ran aground on Montgomery Reef.
With expert knowledge of the Kimberley's unpredictable waters, Dean started running supplies for the company and soon sensed a new opportunity to make money.
In 1959, he dumped his middle son, Lyndon, at Shenton Bluff, on the northern tip of Cygnet Bay, with an elderly Bardi Aboriginal couple to help him survive and instructions to work out how to culture pearls.
Against the odds, the 21-year-old became the first non-Japanese person in history to do so: a year after seeding the Pinctada maxima shells, he prised them open and found cultured pearls growing inside.
The family applied for Australia's first cultured pearl license and moved operations to Cygnet Bay. By the mid-1960s, James' parents Bruce and Alison had arrived to help out Lyndon and his Japanese wife, Schizuko Umuszawa.
Living side-by-side in paperbark huts in remote bush overlooking pristine waters, the couples slowly and painstakingly built their farm. Forced to live self-sufficiently, they grew vegetables, kept goats and chickens and worked with the Bardi people to build a community.
The shallow reefs at Cygnet Bay, virtually untouched by human hand, turned out to be perfect for growing pearls: twice-daily, massive tidal flows delivered constant nutrients and clean water, making for robust, healthy shells.
The family became industry pioneers; Bruce and Lyndon introduced the first non-hard hat divers in the 1970s and Bruce and Alison opened Broome's first pearl shop in 1971 that, unlike today, bombed for a lack of tourists.
James' was born on September 10, 1978, two years after his older sister. At 12, after a carefree childhood, he was sent away to Scotch College in Perth: "It was a bit of a culture shock, I can tell you," he says.
"Going from Cygnet Bay to Claremont, in the thick of Perth's high society ? the hardest thing I found to adjust to was socialising with the rich kids.
"On the first day at school in Year 8, I had to learn to tie my tie - but I also had to learn how to tie my shoelaces because I'd never had a pair of shoes."
James was not a conscientious student - he claims he was "too busy" to read books growing up. But at James Cook University in Townsville, he found a natural fit for his love of the ocean: a "mind-blowing" marine biology degree that he loved so much, he stayed an extra year.
Returning to Cygnet Bay at 21 with a head full of ideas, he was brought back to earth during a tough apprenticeship under farm managers and technicians Billy Gibson and "Jacko", a salty pearling skipper.
"They didn't go lightly on me ? they expected me to come back with airs and graces," James says. "You know, here's the silver spoon boy coming back after wasting his life at university while we have been slogging away, busting our arses."
James survived, getting his hands dirty as he learned every aspect of pearl farming over several years - from fixing engines to seeding shells.
In 2005, he became farm manager and was put in charge of 60 staff. Life was busy but happy; by then, he had met his now-wife Sarah, a teacher, and in 2006 his first son Dean was born, followed by Shae in 2007.
The pearling industry was also peaking: "Back then, people used to say that pearling was a license to print money," he said. But like in all boom times, the bust would come - and it hit swiftly and hard: "I rode the wave of pearling from its dizzy heights to the low it is in now," James says.
First, oyster oedema disease swept through WA's tropical waters, killing millions of juvenile shells and successful businesses overnight: "That was the end of Kailis," he says.
Then in 2008, the global financial crisis struck, with devastating effects on the international wholesale market: "Our cashflow stopped overnight, with 60 dedicated employees."
It was the Brown's trigger to diversify. James convinced his reluctant family to open their working farm to the public in an Australian first, converting Lyndon's old homestead into showroom, reception and cafe.
Divers' quarters were turned into rustic accommodation, old pearling boats converted for tours and new eco-tents constructed with sweeping views over the water to encourage visitors to stay and explore. For the first time in 25 years, Cygnet Bay also started selling its product domestically, opening a pearl retail store in Broome with the world's biggest pearl, harvested in 2004, prominently displayed.
In 2009, James started the not-for-profit Kimberley Marine Research Station to both indulge his love of marine science and encourage research in Cygnet Bay and the wider Kimberley waters.
It was a canny move; with millions of dollars from the State Government's investment into the Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy hitting the ground this year, scientists have started flocking to the region to study its pristine waters in research projects likely to last years.
James says next year, Cygnet Bay will open its new hatchery to try to breed more robust spat shells resistant to deadly viruses. He is also pushing to create a new gourmet market for raw pearl meat flesh instead of frozen, targeting top-end restaurants in Perth.
Like the rest of his family, James is at Cygnet Bay for the long haul - it is the only home he has ever known. He hopes his children will choose to follow in his footsteps and become the fourth generation of Browns to run a sustainable, successful business.
"I don't think there is any other aquaculture company in the country, perhaps the world, which has operated continuously in one site as long as Cygnet Bay Pearls," he says.
"That's the essence of sustainability and environmental responsibility, as far as I am concerned ? the Australian pearling industry, and Cygnet Bay, is something all West Australians can be proud of."
