After nearly 60 years, one of Australia's oldest pearl farms is celebrating its first harvest involving a combination of 19th-century Japanese trade secrets and modern-day science.

Cygnet Bay Pearls is one of the country's oldest pearl farms owned by the Brown family for three generations, the first Australians to successfully harvest a cultured pearl.

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Up until this moment no pearl farm in the world had ever been started without Japanese involvement.

Now these pearling pioneers are celebrating another historic milestone at the farm, located 200km north of Broome, with the first ever harvest from shells bred in their hatchery.

It is a huge turning point for the industry, more than a decade after a mystery disease led to widespread Pinctada Maxima pearl shell mortality in the region.

Research and breeding programs offer new hope

The first hatchery pearl shells were spawned in 2013 in the wake of the devastating outbreak.

Cygnet Bay general manager James Brown said it was rewarding to see that investment start to pay off.

"It's five years from the start of spawning to the first pearls and hopefully if we can reseed some of those we'll get a second pearl in another two years," he said.

"It's very rewarding for the team to actually see that full cycle."

Mr Brown said research and better breeding programs were the keys to long-term success in the global pearling industry.

"Hatchery technology is the new world of pearl farming and molluscan aquaculture in general because it allows us to control breeding programs," he said.

"We still use wild shell, it's still really important to our program, [but] we're using the hatcheries to run the breeding programs and eventually that will lead to a difference in productivity."

After the baby pearl oysters have been spawning in the hatchery for around 50-60 days they go out to the farm. ( ABC Rural: Courtney Fowler )

After receiving a grant from the Northern Australia Cooperative Research Centre earlier this year, Cygnet Bay Pearls began a $10 million project to breed resistance against Juvenile Pearl Oyster Mortality Syndrome in a partnership between Northern Territory-based company Elly's Pearls and the James Cook University.

"We feel it's a vital piece of work, there's so few South Sea Pearling companies now," Mr Brown said.

"We think there's a chance to get the State government involved in this project over time and do it as an industry whole initiative rather than company on company, but it's a good start."

Hopes pearl trail can inspire tourism

Another challenge faced by the Australian cultured pearl industry is reduced demand for the product since the Global Financial Crisis.

At the industry's peak 16 independent pearl producers plied the Kimberley coast but the downturn in the mid-2000's saw that reduce to only three companies continuing to farm in Western Australia.

While demand has been slowly recovering, locals have struggled to compete with cheap, mass-produced Asian pearls.

Mr Brown said tourism loomed as the perfect way to educate the Australian public about the value of Australian pearls.

"I feel like we're on the cusp of something great," he said.

"I'm hoping if we can actually start to feed some value into Australian product, we can see more pearl farms open up in time and get back to where we were 10-20 years ago."

Broken Bay founder Rose Crisp is one of only a handful of female pearl technicians in the world who operates on the Akoya pearl. ( ABC Rural: Courtney Fowler )

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 8 minutes 10 seconds 8 m Third generation pearler James Brown speaks about historic pearl harvest at Cygnet Bay ( ABC Rural: Courtney Fowler ) Download 3.7 MB

He said he hoped a recently formed partnership with New South Wales' only pearl farm, in Broken Bay, could be the start of Australia's first pearl trail.

"If you think about the wine regions … providence and value then feeds back into production," Mr Brown said.

"I think like wine trails, the vision is that we actually end up with this pearl region and pearling experiences that really allow people to take another more immersive step into the industry."

Industry turning a corner

Other Kimberley pearling companies are also investing heavily into research and tourism opportunities.

Last month a brand-new $500,000 hatchery was opened on the Dampier Peninsula, a collaboration between Willie Creek and Autore Pearls to spawn and rear a sustainable supply of juvenile oysters for cultured pearl production.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 7 minutes 41 seconds 7 m General Manager of Operations Paul Birch speaks about new hatchery built at Willie Creek in collaboration with Autore Pearls ( ABC Rural: Courtney Fowler ) Download 3.5 MB

As a result of the project, Autore has relocated their previous hatchery operation from the remote site of Beagle Bay to the new facility at Willie Creek, where there is also vital genetics research being undertaken.

Willie Creek have branched out from pearl tourism and have been farming a commercial sea lease since 2015. ( Supplied: Willie Creek Pearls )

General Manager of Operations Paul Birch said after more than 20 years of pearl tourism at Willie Creek, diving into the world of genetics research with Autore was a huge turning point for the company.

"There's lots of advantages to hatchery-reared oysters over wild stock, particularly over known parentage and also oyster age," he said.

"If we can make sure that whatever we're producing is of the highest possible quality, then that allows us to compete on a global scale."

Mr Birch said he hoped the new facility would provide the public with a better insight into the pearling industry, from shell to showroom.

"In addition to the benefits the hatchery will deliver to our commercial pearling operation, it's also going to be an extremely interesting and important addition to our pearl farm tour," he said.

This rare 19mm pearl valued at $75,000 was discovered at Willie Creek Pearl farm last month. ( ABC Rural: Courtney Fowler )

The mother of all pearls

Willie Creek might be relatively new to commercial pearl farming after being granted their first sea lease in 2015, but this year's harvest has already turned some heads after a rare $75,000 pearl was discovered last month.

"It's quite a find, probably a once in a generation discover from a nine-year-old oyster," Mr Birch said.

"It makes me get pretty excited about the harvest ahead over the next couple of weeks."

Cygnet Bay holds the record for the world's most valuable cultured pearl at 22.24 mm.

It is believed the Brown family have been offered up to a million dollars for the gem, but it has never been sold.

The priceless pearl remains on show at the Cygnet Bay showrooms in Broome.