Brian Andrew Hills

Brian Andrew Hills, born 19 March 1934 in Cardiff, Wales,

The pearl shell industry centred around Broome had collapsed recently as the button industry switched to plastics and the cultured pearl industry was seen as an opportunity to keep a profitable industry in the far North of Australia. The first pearl farming venture had just been set up at Kuri Bay as a three-way arrangement between a New York company which marketed the product, Japanese experts on pearl seeding and an Australian company which supplied the wild oysters. Two divers died and the Department of Primary Industry (DPI) in Canberra requested the Royal Australian Navy to investigate. The Navy report concluded that the pearl divers were not following the recommendations of the navy diving manual, and in particular were not following Haldanian decompression procedures, standard at the time. The diving company replied that the navy tables required so much decompression time that they were not financially viable.