Tuesday, 2 June 2026
This morning we were able to wake up at a reasonable hour before doing a self-drive excursion to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm. You can arrange to be collected from your accommodation in Broome and have their driver drive you out, especially if you don’t have a 4×4. Bernie decided to drive us out so that we were in control of our arrival and departure times.
We set out just after 9.00am on the 43 kilometre drive to Willie Creek. The confirmation we received for the tour suggested allowing an hour, but the trip only took about 45 minutes despite the final section being on a sandy, unsealed road. The sand was deep and loose in parts but, thankfully, dry so we didn’t re-coat the newly washed MU-X with red mud!
Arriving early we had plenty of time to use the facilities and feed the koi in the fish pond. As soon as I looked at the fish, they were over to the side of the pond looking to be fed. Although the food pellets are usually reserved for children to feed the fish, Debbie, a member of the Banfield Family who own and operate the pearl farm, gave me a few pellets to feed to the greedy fish!
We met our guide, Lucy, on the deck at 10.15am and started our tour in the Pearl Nursery, where we learnt about the Pinctada Maxima oysters and how they are seeded to grow pearls. It’s much more complicated than putting a grain of sand inside them! We also learnt about a groundbreaking new project that is being worked on which will, hopefully, see a medical product being made from the nacre lining of the pearl shells to be used in orthodontic and orthopedic procedures, where a bone graft is needed.
With our heads filled with a ton of information about growing cultured pearls, we returned to the Harvest Café on the deck for morning tea, a substantial morning tea! We were treated to fruit, chocolate cake and mini dampers made to a family recipe and a range of beverages which included options for non-tea-drinkers like Bernie.
After morning tea, we joined Fabian aboard the Mimi Pearl II, for a short cruise on Willie Creek. The boat is a brand new, state-of-the-art, fully electric boat, roofed with solar panels. Fabian told us that up to 45 percent of the solar energy collected is from sunshine reflected off the water. The tidal range at Willie Creek is second only to Derby in Australia, with eleven metres difference between high and low tide. Although most of their oysters are on long lines at the farm’s open water sea leases, a couple of longs lines are kept in the creek for visitors to view.
While we were out on the water, we were told about how the oysters are managed during the two years it takes them to grow a pearl. Although there are three crocs who live in the creek, we didn’t see any of them today. The only wildlife of note was a Brahminy Kite and an egret. After our short cruise on the glorious turquoise waters of the creek, Fabian returned us to the beach in front of the showroom/cafe complex.
Our next stop was in the gazebo, where Lucy told us more about the harvesting of the pearls, which included more about the complex anatomy of the oyster and how it forms nacre to create the world’s finest white pearls. She also explained the difference between the white pearls grown in Australia and the gold and the black pearls of the South Pacific. The demonstration included opening an oyster collected this morning from the long lines in Willie Creek and … it was a bust with no pearl inside.
Usually, sometimes (?) they open an oyster during the demonstration to reveal a pearl. In fact, about five years ago, the guide opened a pearl during the tour to reveal, the largest, most perfect pearl the farm has ever produced. We were shown ‘The Don’ at our next stop, the jewelry showroom. The Don (named after founder, Don Banfield) is not for sale, but is valued at $250,000.
Lucy explained the five characteristics by which pearls are valued: size, colour, shape, complexion (surface quality) and lustre. We were told that the first three characteristics are important but it is the final two characteristics that will determine the pearl’s real value. Matters of size, colour and shape can be swayed by personal preference, but without good surface quality and the all important pearlescent lustre, a pearl is nothing special.
We were then told that June is the ‘Month of the Pearl’ and we would enjoy a 15 percent discount on most of the stock in the showroom, if we chose to purchase anything. Blah, blah, something about joining their loyalty club and spending $250 or more to go in the draw for a string of pearls. I already have pearls that I don’t wear because, despite pearl being my birthstone, I just don’t see myself as a pearl wearer. I always think of twin sets when I think of pearls!!
Escaping the showroom without making a purchase (actually, the staff were fine and they didn’t put any pressure on us to buy pearls) we made our way back to the café where we decided on a seafood platter to share, with a side of chips. The girl in the café upsold us on the chips. We weren’t going to buy any chips until she suggested it! We had the outdoor dining area to ourselves and it was very pleasant enjoying our lunch under the shade with a lovely breeze blowing.
We drove back into Broome where we stopped in at the Ampol servo to buy fuel ready for our departure on Thursday. Driving around over the last couple of days we have been able to compare the BP, Shell and Ampol servos. Ampol was selling Amplify Diesel for the same price as BP’s standard diesel, so that seemed like very good value and … it’s been a while since the truck was topped up with premium diesel.
The Ampol servo was beside Woolies so we popped in to buy another cask of water. We looked for water last time we were in, but the water section of the beverage aisle was very bare. It was still bare today. We drove from the Woolies to the Coles in Chinatown to see what the water situation was there. No casks of water there either, so we had to buy one of those plastic ten litre water bottles. Bernie worries about them leaking because you have to puncture a small hole in them.
We relaxed back at the cabin for a couple of hours until it was time to head over to the Staircase Market, in preparation for the ‘Staircase to the Moon’ phenomenon, when the full moon rose at 6.49pm tonight. We sussed out the food trucks but, because we ate so much at the Willie Creek Pearl Farm, we weren’t really hungry yet. We secured ourselves a position along the beachfront, ready for the full moon to rise and reflect its light on the exposed mudflats, creating the illusion of a staircase. There are three nights each month on which to see the phenomenon, and we were lucky to be in Broome at the time of the full moon. Actually we were very lucky, seeing as we didn’t actually plan it that way, it was just dumb luck!
The moon rose unexpectedly red. We had noticed that there seemed to be a bit of haze on the horizon, so we think that must have been the reason for a ‘blood moon’. Usually it’s the name given to a total lunar eclipse when the earth moves between the Sun and the Moon. Certainly, as the moon climbed higher into the sky, it lost the red hue.
Now to see if any of the food trucks have food left. Oh, dear, it seems most people are wise enough to eat BEFORE the moon rises, as it was very slim pickings indeed. We eventually decided to buy some satay sticks. The Thai Food caravan had run out of rice though. I remembered that we had pouches of rice in the pantry box, so we purchased the satay sticks and took them back to the cabin, where we heated up our own rice to go with them.
Steps: 7,119 (4.42kms)
