Diamonds and Pearls

Diamonds and Pearls

Broome in Western Australia is a bit of an old-time frontier town.  100 years ago it was the centre of a booming pearling industry.  Japanese and Aboriginal Australian divers went to the bottom of the bay for up to seven hours a day collecting pearl shells.  With our modern day equipment, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but this suit can’t have been very comfortable!  Also the diver was completely reliant on his crew on the lugger (pearl boat).  It took four men to pump air down a pipe to the diver.  He must have really trusted the crew as they pulled him back up by a rope attached at the neck of the dive suit.  Before decompression chambers were used in 1915 many divers died after experiencing 'the bends.'  They resurfaced too quickly to give them more time to dive for pearls, causing problems with Nitrogen balance in the blood.  This can still be a problem for divers today.

Pearling declined during the 2nd World War, and since then pearls have been 'farmed' inland at places like this:  www.williecreekpearls.com.au

Broome was attacked during WW2, sea plane wrecks can still be seen off the beach at low tides.  The best story I found was about a man named for a drink and $10million diamonds...

On 3 March 1942, Dutch Dakota DC-3 PK-AFV "Pelikaan" of the KNILM (Netherlands East Indies KLM) left Bandung in Java headed for Australia with a plane load of evacuees. They managed to escape Java just 3 days before the Japanese took the Bandung area.

At about 1:00 am, while the Dakota's engines were being warmed up, the Captain of the Dakota, Ivan Smirnoff  was handed a sealed cigar-box sized container by Mr. Wisse, the manager of Andir airfield at Bandung. The box was wrapped in brown paper and sealed in many places. Smirnoff was not aware of the contents of the box but was told "Take good care of this, it is quite valuable". He was told that an Australian Bank would take delivery of the box on arrival in Australia.

As they followed the beaches towards Broome, they suddenly observed large black clouds of smoke when they were still about 80 kilometres north of Broome. 


They had unfortunately arrived at Broome just after a Japanese raid by nine Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter aircraft.  Three of the Zeros first attacked the Dakota from the port side. Captain Smirnoff was wounded several times in his arms and hip. Smirnoff managed to put the Dakota into a steep spiral dive with the Zeros in pursuit, and landed the plane on a beach.  They continued to be showered with ammunition, so abandoned the plane.  Two passengers would later die from their wounds and lack of water.

In the meantime, Jack Palmer a well known beachcomber in the Broome area sailed his lugger into the Carnot and Beagle Bays area. He spotted the wrecked Dakota. Being a beachcomber he salvaged what he could from the Dakota. It is presumed that he found the mystery box at low tide. Stories have been told that he shared some of his booty of diamonds with friends and some local aborigines.

In mid April 1942 Jack Palmer made a visit to Army headquarters at Broome and asked to enlist in the Army. During an interview with Major Clifford Gibson he unexpectedly poured a salt shaker full of diamonds over the desk. They were confiscated and sent to Perth. Palmer was taken into custody by Lieutenant Laurie O'Neill who led an investigation into the incident. They took Palmer back to the crash site. They found pieces of torn brown paper wrapping and seals that came off the box. While they were there, the team salvaged some parts of the aircraft.





Diamonds started to be found in a variety of locations:-

- a Chinese trader had some
- amongst aboriginal communities
- in a matchbox in a train carriage compartment
- in the fork of a tree (found after the war)
- in a fireplace in a house in Broome

Jack Palmer and his two accomplices James Mulgrue and Frank Robinson were committed for trial in the Perth Supreme Court in May 1943. Chief Justice Sir John Northmore presided over the court with a jury of six. All three accused were acquitted after several days. Captain Ivan Smirnoff and Major Gibson were amongst a number of witnesses called from all around Australia.

Only £20,447 worth of diamonds were recovered by the authorities which means that there is in excess of £250,000 still missing today. This is now equivalent to over $10 million dollars worth of diamonds.




If only I had the time to go looking...