Diving history celebrated
The 100th anniversary of the first recompression in Australia was celebrated last week when representatives from the WA Pearl Producers Association took a walk down memory lane in Broome.
PPA chief executive Aaron Irving said Australia's first recompression happened on February 19, 1915, when a Japanese pearl diver suffering from paralysis caused by the bends was treated in a then-experimental chamber in Broome.
"The diver was taken to Broome where he was formally diagnosed and then submitted to treatment in the experimental recompression chamber - an earlier form of the technology which evolved into today's modern hyperbaric chamber," Mr Irving said.
A century later, hyperbaric recompression continues to be the primary method of treating decompression sickness of pearl and other divers.
Mr Irving said the PPA continued the tradition by funding a hyperbaric unit at Broome Hospital to treat divers suffering from the bends.
"The PPA maintains this unit for the use of divers employed in the pearling industry, although it is used very rarely, which is how we like it," he said.
The old chamber is housed at Broome Historical Museum.
