Newport Garden Seashells

Newport Garden Seashells P/L is owned and operated by Kim & Kim Back. Kim was born and bred into seashells by his parents Walter and Fay Back, with his father being a professional boat builder and whose shell collection was extensively used for the plates of Dr Barry Wilson's book, "Australian Shells" published in 1971. His mother, with her passion... of intertidal collecting in the south west town of Augusta was fortunate to find specimens of Mitra Scabricola backae having been named after her. She also worked voluntarily in the W.A. Museum helping sort and catalogue the vast collections of seashells house there for a number of years. They were also President and Committee members of the W.A. Shell Club for many years. Kim has also contributed much to our knowledge of the deep water endemic seashell fauna from off the coast of Western Australia. He joined the W.A. Fisheries Research Department in 1974 as a biologist and worked in the Western Australia Scallop and Prawn Fisheries of Shark Bay, Exmouth Gulf, Nickel Bay and Onslow. Kim joined the Foreign Trawl Fishery Section of the Fisheries Department in 1979 as principally an observer on board Taiwanese, Korean, British and Japanese fishing vessels that were given a special licence to research fish stocks off the Western Australian coast. During his time with the Fisheries Department, he made the first trawled recordings of Zoila jeaniana jeaniana in Shark Bay, Zoila jeaniana aurata off Point Maud, Zoila rosselli off Point Quobba and Zoila perlae eludens in Exmouth Gulf. Kim left the Fisheries Department in 1990 and pursued his passion for seashells by registering NEWPORT GARDEN SHELLS P/L and commenced trading and selling. His extensive first hand knowledge of the habitat and distribution of deep water seashells off the coast of Western Australia has now been applied in assisting the first use of a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) to collect deep water seashells off the Western Australian coastline. Kim was more recently honoured by the naming of the intermediate ...Read More