to go to all these magical places in The Kimberleys that people pay thousands of dollars to go to." After finishing school in year 11, Joseph studied aquaculture part-time, while working on pearl farms as a diver & deckhand, and it’s where he cut his teeth in the jewellery trade. “I was good friends for the showroom manager for the company I worked for and they had a massive fish tank in their store. They asked me to come and set it up, so I was trapping fish when I was out diving and bringing them in to get the tank going. I got talking to the jeweller and he said he needed an apprentice and asked if I was interested. “I thought, there’s always going to be dive work there I’ll give this trade a go. It was a five-year apprenticeship in Western Australia, because it’s quite detailed. And I did a specialised pearl and diamond apprenticeship. So I got the real ins and outs, I did all the setting and all the traditional techniques. I was just really lucky to grow up in an era in Broome when there was some of the best jewellers in the world working there, it was real pearl hub. It was a real gem hub really. A lot of people travelled there from around the world to buy the pearls and the diamonds and to experience The Kimberleys.” After finishing his apprenticeship, Joseph headed to Kuri Bay in the middle of The Kimberleys - home to the first pearl farm set up in Australia, owned & operated by Paspaley Pearls. “I just worked around in the pearling industry, tripped back into the showrooms and the jewellery shops every now and again, Based between Broome & Darwin, mainly on the fleet boats as a diver. From there I became a commercial diver. So I left the trade for a little while but always had a jewellery setup at home. I Started working in oil and gas and lived in Darwin, that’s where I met my now ex-wife who’s from this part of the world.” Joseph made a home with his wife in Inverloch and started a family, and has remained in the town following his separation to stay close to his sons. He opened his own business, Blue Salt Jewellers, in 2017, and has become a sought-after craftsman. “I’m very unique. I’ve worked in every part of the jewellery trade, in every part of the pearling industry. I’ve worked as a pearl technician, a diver, a decky,on the farms,in hatcheries, in the pearl grading rooms, in the sales’ teams, in the show rooms and as a jeweler . And in doing that I’ve got to meet a lot of really good jewellers, really hands-on craft people. I’ve also got connections with opal, sapphire & diamond miners. I deal straight with the sources. I don’t deal in anything other than high value, high-end jewellery & gems. I don’t really even do repairs.” His clientele includes Gippslanders and customers from as far as Western Australia and Queensland. His unique pieces all tell a distinctly Australian story. “All of my gems I can certify . All of the diamonds I supply come with certifications that they come from the Argyle Mine all my pearls are the same. It’s really prevalent to me to keep that industry going. It’s so easy for us to go overseas and buy something cheaper and flood the market with it. What we don’t realise is that we’re killing industries in Australia.” Creating pieces mainly by request, Joseph says the providence of his gems and his exacting standards combine for truly heirloom jewellery. “I’ve got no problem with starting again. I tell my clients, it might take six weeks. And if I have to do it three times, I have to do it. One thing I can’t do is let something go that I’m not happy with and is to a standard that I know is not going to last two or three lifetimes. That’s just the way I was taught and that’s just the way I do it.” Autumn, 2021