Unloading pearl shell from a lugger, 1910

Pearl oysters are a type of shelled animal that lives in the ocean. Oysters sometimes make small, shiny pearls, and the inside of their shell is also hard and shiny.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have harvested oyster shell to use as tools and ornaments for thousands of years. In the late 1800s, oyster shell became fashionable in Europe and North America. It was used to make jewellery, buttons, cutlery handles and ornaments.

Northern Australia was a major supplier of pearl shell to the world. People came from the Torres Strait, the South Pacific islands, South-East Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Japan and the Philippines to work on pearling ships in northern Australia.