Nicholas Paspaley joined the pearling trade at 14 years of age. By 1932, at the age of 19, he ran his own pearling lugger, diving for natural pearls, and for mother-of-pearl shell. When Port Hedland began to become less profitable due to exhaustion of the pearl fields, Paspaley made the decision to move to the uncharted waters of Darwin. In Darwin, Paspaley increased his pearling fleet to 5 pearling ships. It was in Darwin that Nicholas Paspalis changed the family name to Paspaley, and established the Paspaley Pearling Company.