Paspaley

Paspaley, officially the Paspaley Pearling Company, a private company, is Australia's largest and oldest pearling company; that cultivates, farms, harvests, wholesales and retails South Sea pearls for the purposes of luxury jewellery supply and manufacture. Paspaley claims that it is a strong advocate of environmental responsibility within the pearling industry.

The Paspaley Group has a diversified portfolio of investments including a naval fleet, aircraft, a shopping mall, an office block, agriculture properties, resorts, and a vineyard. Members of the Paspaley family had an interest in Australia's largest immigration detention centre, located 35 km south of Darwin, Northern Territory.[1]

Paspaley Pearls

According to Paspaley, its pearls are particularly known for their 'orient', which is the combination of transparent lustre and unique play of colours which is exhibited by pearls with fine quality

Paspaley operates 20 pearl farms dotted along the coastline of north-Western Australia. Paspaley claims that it maintains a ‘leave no trace’ environmental policy.[2] In 2012, the area in which Paspaley operates was designated as a marine wilderness sanctuary. Paspaley stated that this area was still in pristine condition and is a breeding ground for

History

Early history

Paspaley was established by the Paspalis family, who migrated from Kastellorizo, Greece to Australia.

The family settled in Cossack, Western Australia. At that time, the Australian north coast was the world's most important pearling area, with the towns of Broome, Western Australia, Cossack, and Darwin being the world's leading pearling ports. The Paspalis family were among the few Europeans living in the area with Aboriginal inhabitants and Asian pearl fishermen. Pearling was one of the few viable industries in the area, and Theodosis Paspalis with the help of his family, built a pearling fleet that became the basis of the family company.

Nicholas Paspaley joined the pearling trade at 14 years of age. By 1932, at the age of 19, he ran his own pearling lugger, diving for natural pearls, and for mother-of-pearl shell. When Port Hedland began to become less profitable due to exhaustion of the pearl fields, Paspaley made the decision to move to the uncharted waters of Darwin. In Darwin, Paspaley increased his pearling fleet to 5 pearling ships. It was in Darwin that Nicholas Paspalis changed the family name to Paspaley, and established the Paspaley Pearling Company.

At the outbreak of World War II, the Australian government impounded and then destroyed all pearling luggers in North Australia to keep them away from Japanese invaders.[4]

Post World War II

After WWII the Japanese Akoya pearl industry was rebuilt in Japan, and exports of Japanese Akoya Cultured pearls boomed to international markets. Similarly, post World War II, the Australian mother-of-pearl shell industry also boomed as renewed demand ensured record prices for mother-of-pearl buttons right through to the mid-1950s.

Nicholas Paspaley had purchased four luggers which had been abandoned during the war by the Royal Australian Navy on Darwin's beaches. Once again, after rebuilding the luggers, Nicholas resumed pearling out of Darwin. However, the invention of the plastic button in the mid 1950s reduced demand for mother-of-pearl shell, virtually devastating the industry overnight, with the fleets of pearling luggers abandoned once more on the beaches.

Not to be defeated by this sudden collapse of the industry, Nicholas drew inspiration from the success of the booming Japanese Akoya cultured pearl industry, and sought to resurrect the South Sea pearl project commenced by Baron Iwasaki in 1916 – this time taking advantage of North Australia's abundant and superior beds of South Sea pearl oysters – with the dream to cultivate the world's largest and most valuable cultured pearl – the cultured South Sea pearl.

In the early 1950s Nicholas negotiated a joint venture project with the Kuribayashi family of Japan – employing the Iwasaki/Mitsubishi experts who had pioneered the project before the war. Although the Kuribayashi's had no pearl farming experience, the Kuribayashi family were the owners of the Japanese pearling fleet that travelled from Japan each year, diving for mother-of-pearl shell and pearls off the North Australian coast. Their experience in the pearling industry made them a suitable partner for the project.

The Australian Government subsequently removed the ban on pearl culture activities in Australia, and authorised the establishment of the first two pearl farms in Australia. One at Kuri Bay (named after Kuribayashi), and one at

trade name	Paspaley
type	Private company
industry	Aquaculture; Manufacturing; Wholesale and Retailing
genre	Pearling
founded	1932
founder	Nicholas Paspalis
hq location city	Darwin, Northern Territory
hq location country	Australia
num locations	7
num locations year	2019
area served	Worldwide
key people	Nick Paspaley Jr. Paspaley family
products	Jewellery
brands	Paspaley Pearls
assets	A$1 billion
assets year	2012
website	paspaleypearls.com

Paspaley Pearls

Retail and wholesale

History

Early history

Post World War II

Management and structure

See also

External links

References