Extremely rare gold pearl discovery on Kimberley boat tour makes ‘magical’ birthday for Perth business founder

An extremely rare golden pearl has been discovered on a Kimberley fine dining tour and was promptly snapped up by a Perth business founder celebrating a milestone birthday, with the appearance of humpback whales making it a spectacular night. Sea West Broome Cruises owner Myrianthe Riddy said the tour group was taken to a Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm lease on Monday evening to pull up pots as part of the experience with a key aim of gathering pearl meat - a sought-after delicacy. To their great delight, a gold-lipped Australian South Sea pearl oyster - the largest and rarest of all pearl oysters - was plucked out along with a more common silver-lipped, which produces a white pearl. Weeding Women founder Colleen Sheehan said one of the captains had warned the shells sometimes contained no pearl. “The first one he opened, he said ‘oh my God!’ He’s never seen one before and was absolutely raving,” Ms Sheehan told The West Australian. “I’d already thought to myself ‘if there’s a pearl, I want to buy that as a memento of my 70th’.” Everyone agreed it was meant to be hers. “It was just wonderful, it was just magical and I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Sheehan said. The excitement didn’t end after the amazing find. As guests tucked into pearl meat ceviche on the boat overlooking Cable Beach, prepared by on-board chefs as part of a seven-course sunset seafood banquet, humpback whales - just starting to arrive in Broome on their annual winter migration - frolicked nearby. “They turned on a show that night ... it’s peak WA,” Ms Riddy said, agreeing the pearl was “really amazing because they’re so unusual”. On Tuesday, guests saw the pearl being valued at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm’s Broome headquarters as part of the tour and Ms Sheehan immediately set about having it turned into a gold necklace pendant. The pearl was valued at $280 as it has a slight imperfection, compared to $1200 for the more perfect white pearl (pictured) also uncovered on the tour. But Ms Sheehan couldn’t have been happier with her unique jewellery box addition, picking it up on Wednesday just before jumping on a plane back to Perth, saying it was the icing on the cake of a perfect birthday celebration, spent in a place close to her heart. She’s lived and worked in Broome off-and-on most of her life, starting out as a lay missionary aged 18 and being adopted into a large Yawuru family, who hosted birthday celebrations over multiple days on her latest visit. “How lucky am I?” Ms Sheehan asked. Cygnet Bay Farm executive manager Jessie Hornblow said only a handful of golden pearls were found each year.