From the 1900s until the 1960s Asian divers in Broome, Darwin and the Torres Strait fished for pearlshell (and pearls if they were lucky) from fleets of wooden luggers. Divers wore full dress diving suits and risked their lives through suffocation, illness and tropical cyclones.

The luggers were small ketches built especially for the pearling industry, and were unique to Australia. In the 1960s cultured pearl farming began and traditional pearling came to an end, along with most of the luggers. Only a handful or so still remain out of the many hundreds that once existed.

Pearl Seekers are the proud owners of one of the last Broome pearling luggers afloat: Centurian. She was built in about 1953 at Broome by local shipwrights and is now based at beautiful Airlie Beach in Queensland.

If you would like to know more about pearling history and the luggers, see Redbill: From Pearls to Peace - the Life and Times of a Remarkable Lugger by Kate Lance, published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004.