Why a Booktrail?
1912: The birth of the Australian Pearl industry is wonderfully evoked
The Pearler’s Wife
What you need to know before your trail
Nineteen-year-old Maisie Porter watches from the deck of the SS Oceanic as England fades from view. Her destination is Buccaneer Bay in Australia’s far north-west where she’s to marry distant cousin Maitland Sinclair, a man she has never met.
When Maisie arrives in her new home, she finds a stifling small town bound by Victorian morals. Shocked at her new husband’s callous behaviour towards her, she is increasingly drawn to William Cooper, a British diver she met on board ship. It soon becomes clear that secrets surround her husband, as turbulent as the waters that crash against the bay. Secrets that somehow link to her own family – and secrets that put Cooper and his fellow British divers in great danger…
Locations
Reset- Australia - WA - Fremantle
- A: Fremantle port
- B: Esplanade Park
- Australia - WA - Broome
- C: Broome
- D: Broome Historical Society & Museum
- E: McDaniels Lookout
- F: Pearl Luggers Broome
- G: Gantheaume Point
Travel Guide
Broome
The author was heavily inspired by Broome when it came to setting her novel of The Pearl Divers.
“Broome had a romantic feel to it – a remote, rugged outpost wit a past woven through with colourful characters and adventurous takes of hard hat divers battle through cyclone to wrest pearl shells the size of serving platter from the depth of the Indian Ocean.
“On every street corner, the town of Broome celebrates the industry that put it on the map.There are museum dedicated to pearl-shell diving, a historical society, bus tours and pearl farms to visit.
At Gantheaume Point, the lighthouse dominates the coastline where Anastasia’s pool was fashioned from a rock pool by the lighthouse keeper for his arthritic wife.
Pearls
The pearling industry inWestern Australia stretches back on the mid- nineteenth century, with Broome emerging onto the scene in the mid 1880s. Mother of Pearl was in worldwide demand for use as buttons, cutlery handles, watch faces and inlay for marquetry. Three inch beds of pear oysters off the beaches of the north-west coats provided a ready supply of the sought-after-shell.
By the turn o fht 20th century, Broom was a town of enormous wealth derived almost entirely from pearl-shell-fishing. The industry drew migrants from across Asia as seen in the book.It soon grew a reputation as the Asian Wild West.
However, by 1912, a deep sense of foreboding hung over the town. The racial unease of the town was growing and the resentment of the white population against the largely Asian diver workforce grew. Un 1901, the six states of Australia had joined into one large confederation which led to the country gradually reducing its Asian workforce in order to protect its Weestern newcomers.
Broome was too far north to police evidently as this racist policy didn’t reach them until 1911 and the same laws now applied to them. At first there was a refusal to change but they were soon forced to replace their Asian Workforce and employ only white , unexperienced, divers.
Divers were brought out from England in a sort of “White Experiment’. The white divers didn’t always agree with their situation and tried to prove themselves, taking risks, trying for bigger pearls, and dying in the process.
The whole industry changed and so he novel evokes this time and its challenges although the story and characters are fictional.
Streetview Maps
D) Broome - McDaniels Point
F) Broome - Gantheaume Point,
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
What a fascinating read! It’s all based around a history I knew little about – the birth and development of the pearl industry in Australia. This was a tough time as the natives and Asian workers who had been the best divers for years, were replaced by the white men brought over from England especially to take charge of this new source of wealth. Of course, because of this, the novel has to evoke the racism and awful treatment of the workers and families of the time who were of a certain colour. But it’s an important story to tell.
The main plot of a girl who is forced to go to Australia to marry a distant cousin creates a thread which weaves throughout the novel to heighten the emotions of a girl on her own. Her marriage is a sham and she has to navigate this environment with a heavy heart. I was with her all the way and it was a fascinating journey to go on.
The language evokes a time and place of pearl diving and the art and efforts behind it. There’s a dark side to even the brightest pearl however but the picture overall, gleams with honesty and rich history.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Pearler’s Wife
Destination : Broome, Fremantle Author/Guide: Roxane Dhand Departure Time: 1912
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