So we've made it all the way from Karumba to the tip of Cape York on the west coast of Cape York,
and now we've got to head down the east coast. And the thing with the east coast of Cape York
is it's weather-permitting. Like it can be an extremely dangerous place to navigate with the
southeasterly winds, and we're on that borderline where the south easterly trade winds are starting
to kick in. We've got a weather window, and it's a very small weather window. So we're going to
have to be very selective in the places that we go and visit, because I've really got to bank
some miles. Otherwise if we get caught in that southeaster, we could be stuck here for weeks.
So yeah we've come around the corner, and now it's not onwards and upwards,
it's onwards and downwards.
So it's going to be pretty cool. We've got a lot of people to meet. We've got places to see
and fish to catch. So let's get cracking down the east coast now of Cape York.
Bloody beautiful, look at that.
The monster from the deep!
Cheers, mate. Cheers, buddy.
This place called Turtle Head Island, now it's just a short stone throw from the tip
of Cape York. In there's the Escape River. And on this island here is a guy by the name of Rusty.
Him and his wife Bronwyn, they run a pearling farm, and I can't believe they're still here.
Last time I spoke to Rusty, he was pulling the pin. It looks like he's still here.
How are you, budyd? We're just passing by.
Come right in.
How's the pearls going?
Well we'll find out shortly, because on account of Covid, we decided--there's no tourists around...
What did you do?
Well we didn't harvest last year.
Look at the size of them.
Holy crap.
It takes two years for a pearl, but we decided to wait another 12 months because of Covid.
Three years.
So we're gonna harvest these probably late June-July.
So basically for leaving them another 12 months, you're gonna have a bigger pearl.
Well over two years on average you get 2-3mm covering of nacre on your pearls. So we're hopeful
that by going the extra 12 months, we might get 3-4mm. Who knows? It's not financially viable
to do it, but if there's no tourists coming, what's the point of taking them out of the water?
Yeah that's right.
So we've just decided to have a go at it.
Yeah very good. So they look good.
So that's those, and then there's the Pteria Penguin.
Yes, they're a smaller pearl, aren't they?
Yeah.
Show me them again.
They're the ones that we do...
The ones with the weird looking shape. They're not like those big fat ones.
See the bone is growing there.
Yeah.
There's free loaders in the water system here everywhere.
That's why we've got to clean the shell.
They're our Pteria Penguin. You can see that they call them batwing shell. These
are probably ready for harvest in 18 months. We leave these for two years,
and later on, I'll show you some. We've got some beautiful, beautiful ones of these.
And they're becoming our biggest selling item, where as a farm, we've become a mabe pearl farm.
It's a unique bit of gear, your jetty.
It's an ongoing project.
It's never finished.
These two are the pteria penguin shell. You know, the ones with a spike on it.
And then these ones are actually, they've come off the actual traditional pearl shell. The big
Pinctada Maximas. The industry is awash with millions of these things with gold and silver
and platinum around them and set shapes. So I've just decided to make my own shapes.
Is that like resin, is it?
And you play around with resin.
You reckon I could buy one for my wife?
Yeah.
So for everyone who doesn't know what that is,
that's actually the mother of pearl shell where the the pearl's attached to the shell.
Yeah that's mabe shell. Mabe pearls. The Chinese were doing it 700 years ago using lead.
Lead?
Yes, they were putting lead into the pearl shell, and the mother of pearl was growing over.
So what are you using to create the star?
There's actually a plastic bead of that shape. But then you get ones like this,
and that's where we've just used a low-grade pearl. I put it on the grinder,
get a flat spot, and stick it on the inside of the shell. And that's what's called a three-quarter.
That's a three-quarter pearl, and you can see the back there, the solid pearl shell.
You've done well, mate.