downturn in the industry saw reports that the Malays employed by Broadhurst and Cadell were unpaid, unable to return home and some had starved to death. In 1875 magistrate Robert Fairbairn was sent to investigate pearling conditions at Shark Bay. Fairbairn held that Broadhurst had not paid 18 Malays a total of £183. 4s. 2d. recovering £11. 12s. 5d. from the sale of Broadhurst's property at Shark Bay. Cadell was also found to have underpaid 10 Malays £198. 14s. 4d. from which they recovered just £16. 16s. Broadhurst resigned from the Legislative Council on 24 November 1875. He then sought a writ of certiorari and the judgement was set aside by the Supreme Court in January 1876 on the technicality that the notice had been given to his nephew Daniel and not to Broadhurst personally. Broadhurst experimented with the sale of Shark Bay shell in London 1878, but failed. He pioneered fish-canning at Mandurah with considerable success, but soon sold the enterprise. By 1884, he had established the guano industry at the Houtman Abrolhos; though he worked energetically in the industry until 1890 he did not prove a success. In that year, he retired in favour of his son, Florance Broadhurst, who with his mercantile education proved enormously successful. In excavating the Gun Island guano deposits, F.C. Broadhurst's men unearthed relics from the Dutch East India Company ship . He catalogued these finds and presented them to the State of Western Australia. Initially thinking the relics were from the , Broadhurst arranged for the purchase and translation of an original account of its loss. This led to its eventual discovery after Henrietta Drake-Brockman, a playmate of his children, became interested in the story and as an adult conducted her own research into the tragedy. Retirement in England After Florance Broadhurst took over the guano industry, Charles and Eliza Broadhurst returned to England and they purchased a home in Bournemouth they called Karrakatta. One daughter, Katherine Elime Broadhurst, followed her mother's interests (as evidenced by entries in Eliza's scrapbook since donated to the Western Australian Museum) in the 19th century feminist movement. She subsequently became a suffragist. On her return to Western Australia 'Kitty' Broadhurst was one of the 12 women who formed the St George Reading Circle, which became the Karrakatta Club. It became a leading force in making Western Australian the second state in Australia to grant women the