Pearl Luggers

Immerse your­self in a tale of hard­ship, adven­ture and intrigue! This unique pearling insight pro­vides the per­fect intro­duc­tion to Broome and should be enjoyed in the ear­ly part of your stay. 

Pearl Lug­gers in Dampi­er Ter­race, Broome, is cen­tred around two orig­i­nal pearling lug­gers beau­ti­ful­ly restored and on dis­play in a repli­ca tidal jet­ty. Your jour­ney begins over­look­ing the Man­grove lined creek where 100 years some 400 lug­gers graced its shores. Broome was con­sid­ered an ​‘Out­post of the Empire’ back then and attract­ed adven­ture seek­ers from all over the world. They came in search of pearl shell, but were also drawn by the lure of pearl and the chance to make their rich­es overnight. 

Tours are avail­able every day (please call our book­ings office for tour times). You will have your eyes well and tru­ly opened as the sto­ry of the evo­lu­tion of pearling unfolds. The show includes some rare archival footage of deep sea divers at work in the waters around Broome. This short black and white doc­u­men­tary was filmed in 1949 and con­tains beau­ti­ful images of lug­gers at sea.

Dis­cov­er the real sto­ry behind Aus­trali­a’s most infa­mous pearling town!

Pearl Lug­gers was devel­oped to main­tain the his­to­ry of the pearling lug­ger, syn­ony­mous with the indus­try since the late 1800s, through the restora­tion of two wood­en lug­gers now fea­tured on display.

Dur­ing our 1.5 hour enter­tain­ing on site tour learn about the hard­ships encoun­tered by the orig­i­nal hard hat divers. Under­stand why these ​“salt­wa­ter cow­boys” were revered as heroes as they risked their lives in pur­suit of the lus­trous pearl shell. Hear about the hard­ships encoun­tered in the dark silent waters of the ocean and watch rare archival footage from the ear­ly 1950’s. This is one of the most cap­ti­vat­ing and enter­tain­ing his­tor­i­cal tours on the pearling foun­da­tions of Broome.

Tours oper­ate dai­ly and includes a free sam­ple of the rare pearl shell meat as a fit­ting finale to this 1.5 hour tour.

Book­ings are essen­tial as oper­at­ing times may alter due to demand. 

Book your Pearl Lug­ger Tours here