A serendipitous encounter between investors in a Jakarta office sparked a lifelong friendship and the idea to pursue pearl culturing in Indonesia. The resulting joint venture led to a risky investment in challenging and isolated regions and the emergence of one of the world’s largest producers of South Sea pearls.

Indonesia; the land and waters of opportunity.

In 1970, Professor Alex Kerr, an Australian economist from Perth, was appointed as an expert in regional accounting in Indonesia. During his time working with various Indonesian regional universities and the Papua-New Guinea government, he was exposed to a whole new vista of under-development. He experienced dense jungle, rugged mountains and the colorful tribes of local villages.

As his appointments neared their end in the late 1980s, he decided to explore potential business opportunities and found himself becoming involved with water activities. Kerr partnered with three other Australians with various Indonesian connections—Ian Fisher, Adam Body, and Ian Murchison—to pursue maritime ventures, including a Bali marina and a prawn culture venture. 

Despite these ventures ultimately ending due to challenges beyond their control, the team remained determined to explore business opportunities in Indonesia, a country with significant development potential.

Just like every pearl, all great ideas start with a seed.

It was in 1989 in a law office in Jakarta that Prof Alex Kerr, Ian Fisher, and Adam Body met, quite by chance, a much respected and retired Indonesian Naval Officer, Admiral Raden Panji Poernomo, (or Pak Poer as he preferred to be called). At this meeting, Pak Poer suggested they try their hand at pearl culture, something that he happened to have some first-hand knowledge of and saw great potential for developing.

This was the turning point that sent the group in a completely
new direction. 

The Indonesian archipelago held several sites favorable for producing pearls, but at the time no one was producing them to the high quality that Australian pearl producers could achieve. The group decided that if they could set up a completely independent pearl farm operation using the Pinctada maxima oysters, which could produce consistently high-quality South Sea pearls, they could compete as a major supplier in the international jewellery market. And that is exactly what they set out to do.

Pak Poer had an excellent working knowledge of marine ventures and was instrumental in helping establish the pearling operation. As a well-known and much-respected figure in the Indonesian marine industry, he was able to obtain oyster stock, government support, and industry advice that the Australian partners would have found difficult to access on their own.

With Pak Poer’s help and substantial research from a marine biologist specialising in pearl culture,  they found a suitable site to establish a pearl farm in Kupang, West Timor. 

The Australian directors sought to establish a joint-venture operation by combining two Australian Companies; Nusantaqua Pty Ltd (set up by Kerr and associates), and Tansim (a subsidiary of Atlas Pacific Gold) with the Indonesian Company PT Perintis Ardindo Nusa (of which Pak Poer was President Director) to form a new company,

PT Cendana Pearls. The vision was that under the name Atlas Pacific Gold, it could be listed on the Australian ASX and US Nasdaq stock exchanges.

The First Farm, Kupang. 

Dr Peter Purchas, a New Zealand project manager and marine biologist, was appointed as project manager and along with his mentor Pak Job Rufus Salean, were charged with not just the production of oysters but also establishing the leases, infrastructure, and facilities required at the designated Kupang site from scratch.

There were language barriers, community and village relationships that had not yet been established, and bureaucratic red tape that had to be overcome before they could even start to work at the site.

They negotiated with local villagers to use their waters in return for work and training them in pearl farming. A lease location had been defined near to Kupang, West Timor in 1991 and Peter pursued the protocols to establish formal leases, commencing in 1992.

Peter recalls the challenges they met at the original Kupang site, not just the remote location in a foreign country, but a complete lack of buildings, facilities, equipment, or trained staff. The staff were local villagers trained from scratch on every detail, from how to grow oysters in sterile conditions, to creating long lines.

But against these challenges, Peter who had relocated his wife and young children to Kupang, persevered in establishing the first Australian-owned pearl oyster farm along with a successful hatchery in Indonesia, supported by a dedicated team of local staff. By 1993 he had successfully achieved their first goal of producing juvenile pearl oysters from broodstock and by 1994, a trial harvest had shown that he had successfully grown silver pearls from yellow oyster stock, through an experimental process of only transferring silver mantle tissue during seeding.

These successes were instrumental in positioning the company in a favorable position to then seek additional funding through listing. 

Atlas Pacific, the first ASX-listed pearl company

Despite their successes, the project was running short of development money and a prospectus was drafted to raise much-needed funds for expansion. 

The company changed its status to one of limited liability and its name to Atlas Pacific Limited, becoming the first ASX-listed company with the visionary objective of being an eco-pearling operation, providing the first-ever opportunity for the public to invest in a publicly owned pearl farm. 

The founding principles of the company were anchored in sustainability. Rather than farming oysters from the wild and decimating wild stock, they sought to employ hatchery technology and become a non-extractive farming operation. 

The first harvest

After several years of intensive research and experimentation, Atlas delivered its inaugural harvest of self-grown pearls in 1996, six years after its inception. The pearls produced were of outstanding quality in terms of shape, color, and skin characteristics, and bode well for the long-term future of the project.

Peter Purchas who had completed his initial contract with success, chose to move back to Perth with his young family. Joseph Taylor, who later completed a Ph.D. at the James Cook University in the study of the Pinctada maxima, was appointed as the new project manager in 1997. Prof Alex Kerr was appointed Chairman of the Board.

Rebels forced the farm to relocate

Around this time there was a movement for independence from Indonesia by a rebel group of East Timorese, and fighting had broken out against the Indonesian army forces. The rebels infiltrated West Timor and Atlas facilities were targeted; vehicles at the Kupang farm were damaged and staff threatened. 

A swift decision was made to get out fast, for the safety of staff and the farm’s longevity. Staff packed up the equipment and live shell in just a few days before transferring by boat to a more suitable site further north.

The boat left Kupang on August 24, 1997, with a crew and just 12 staff on board. Loaded with basic food, supplies, and the essential equipment needed to establish a new farm, they set sail on an adventure to a new home, putting their trust in the hands of Farm Manager Joseph Taylor.

The crew suffered seasickness, and at one point the boat engines failed and the boat drifted for some time before repairs could be made. The journey took 12 days at sea but they finally arrived at Alyui Bay on 5 September 1997.

Arriving in paradise, Alyui Bay

Sugiwati Ndolu, was one of the staff on board the boat and recalls her amazement at how beautiful the bay was, “In front of me was a breathtaking place, so beautiful that I was moved. Among us, we looked at each other in amazement, asking, “Are we still on Earth?” We saw a vast expanse of rocky mountains (islands) covered in green trees.

It didn’t take long for the boat to be met by local villagers and engage in negotiations for acceptance at the area.

Staff set to work the day they arrived, creating lines, unpacking supplies, and hacking through the dense jungle to set up tents. It was an environment where everyone just did what they could to make things work and it proved successful. Soon more help and staff arrived to build the farm site, accommodation, and hatchery.

The Alyui Bay farm remains one of Atlas’ prime farm locations with a complete hatchery-to-harvest operation. A remote but beautiful location that welcomes visitors touring the region, educating them on the pearl farm operation and the connections with the local community and environment.

To this day, Ibu Sugi works at the Alyui Bay farm as a senior pearl technician, training staff.

Alek Kerr retired from the board in 2003.

“As I bowed out of the pearl industry in 2003, sorry to say goodbye to my industry friends forged over the formative years, I did so with a strong sense of loss accompanied by pride at our achievement, having seen the company grow from an idea in our minds to a successful company producing pearls of recognised international quality.” - Extract from Professor Alexander McBride Kerr AM HonDEc (UWA) Memoirs.

Special Thanks . We would like thank the people who have contributed to this story including the family of Prof. Alex Kerr, Bapak Raden Panji Raditya (Director of PT Cendana Indopearls and son of Admiral Poermono), Dr T. Peter G. Purchas, and Ibu Sugiwati Ndolu for sharing their personal stories, memoirs and photos.  

While every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the dates and details contained in these stories, we acknowledge there were many people involved in shaping Atlas Pearls who have not been individually mentioned herein, but have contributed to making the company what it is today.