Pearling in Western Australia includes the harvesting and farming of both pearls and pearl shells (for mother of pearl) along the north-western coast of Western Australia.
The practice of collecting pearl shells existed well before European settlement. Coastal dwelling Aboriginal people had collected and traded pearl shell as well as trepang and tortoise with fisherman from Sulawesi for possibly hundreds of years.[1] After settlement, Aboriginal people were used as slave labour in the emerging commercial industry in a practice known as blackbirding.[2][3] Pearling centred first around Nickol Bay and Exmouth Gulf and then around Broome, to become the largest in the world by 1910.[clarification needed]
The farming of cultured pearls remains an important part of the Kimberley economy, worth A$67 million in 2014 and is the second largest fisheries industry in Western Australia after rock lobster.[4]