Paspaley
| Industry | Retailing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1932 |
| Founder | Nicholas Paspalis |
| Headquarters | Australia |
|
Area served
|
Sydney Brisbane Melbourne Perth |
| Products | Jewellery |
| Revenue |
 $400 million AUD
|
| Website | Official website |
Paspaley Pearling Company is the largest and oldest pearling company operating in Australia.
Today, Paspaley operates a variety of businesses, some of which are dedicated to the support of pearling operations; Paspaley is a strong advocate of environmental responsibility within industry. It has diversified into a shopping mall, an office block, agriculture properties, resorts and a vineyard.
To this day Paspaley remains a family owned and operated business.
Nicholas Paspaley Senior MBE (1914 to 1984) fled the Greek island of Castellorizo as a young child with his family (the Paspalis family) during World War I. As refugees, upon arrival in Australia in 1919, the family’s only option was to settle at their ship's first port of call, Cossack on the Indian Ocean coast of Western Australia. At that time, the Australian North Coast was the world’s most important pearling area, with the towns of Broome, Cossack, and Darwin being the world’s leading pearling ports.
Apart from only a few government officials on remote postings, the Paspalis family were among the few Europeans living in the area with the traditional Aboriginal inhabitants and Asian pearl fishermen. Pearling was one of the few viable industries in the area, and although Nicholas’ father, Theodosis Paspalis died in 1924, sons Michael and Nicholas and daughter Mary continued to pursue their father's fledging interest in pearling – all eventually owning their own pearling fleets. Michael and Mary discontinued pearling after WWII.
Nicholas joined the pearling trade at 14 years of age. By 1932, at the age of 19, he was at the helm of his own pearling lugger, diving for natural pearls, and for mother-of-pearl shell that fulfilled a significant portion of the global demand for mother-of-pearl buttons. When Port Hedland began to become less profitable due to the pearl fields in the area being exhausted, Nicholas made the decision to move to the uncharted waters of Darwin. In Darwin, Nicholas increased his pearling fleet to 5 pearling ships and earned respect as Darwin’s leading Pearling Master. It was in Darwin that Nicholas Paspalis changed the family name to Paspaley, and established the Paspaley Pearling Company.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Australian government impounded all pearling luggers in North Australia, including the Paspaley luggers, for fear they could be used by the Japanese army for invasion. The luggers were consequently destroyed on the beaches.
From the late 1890s-1900’s, British biologist William Saville-Kent – who was working for the Australian Fisheries Department on Thursday Island in North Australia - experimented with a new concept of “tissue graft” in pearl oysters. His experiments proved pearls could be cultured by using this unique technique. Nishikawa and Mise visiting from Japan observed these experiments. In 1916, Nishikawa and Mise of Japan, after perfecting this technique, were granted a 20-year patent on the “tissue graft” technology to culture pearls. This technology led to the development of the Japanese Akoya cultured pearl industry. By the mid 1930s the Japanese industry was substantially developed to the extent that the supply of pearls exceeded demand and Japanese culture pearl prices declined.
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Wikipedia