Description
From the bestselling author of Mailman of the Birdsville Track comes the memoir of Alison Brown, who ventured to Australia’s remote North West as a 19–year–old girl and tied her fortunes to those of the lustrous South Sea pearl.
At a time when others only dreamed of growing pearls in Broome’s giant oysters, the pioneering Brown family mastered the secrets to coax the perfect pearls to life. With an Aussie can–do attitude they created Cygnet Bay pearl farm in the 1960s, the oldest Australian–owned and operated pearl farm and producer of the world’s largest fine–quality pearl—the size of a 10–cent coin.
From seven years living in a paperbark hut alongside the local Bardi Jawi people, to herding goats and snakes, and managing a male work crew of pearl technicians, divers and deckhands, Australia’s ‘First Lady of Pearls’ shares her life of adventure raising two children and building an entire community in the isolated tropical paradise of Western Australia’s north.
Kristin Weidenbach writes popular non–fiction focused on Australian history. She is the award–winning author of Australian bestseller Mailman of the Birdsville Track: the Story of Tom Kruse; also Growing up Moonta, and Rock Star: the Story of Reg Sprigg. Her picture books for children include the CBCA award–winner Tom the Outback Mailman, Meet Banjo Paterson and King of the Outback: the story of Sidney Kidman.
