My childhood growing up in the pearling town of Broome is filled with amazing memories. Broome was, from my understanding, the only place in Australia where the White Australia Policy did not seem to apply because the demand for pearls and the pearl shell industry brought men in from all parts of Asia. In the mid 1930s, after a cyclone that destroyed many luggers and lives, my father came to Broome from West Timor as a Dutch National. Official records show he spent time in the Dutch Merchant Navy on board the ship Gorgon.