Thursday Island

Thursday Island, Waiben in the local language, is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait, a small island of a few thousand people between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. Pearling built it from the 1870s, drawing Japanese, Malay, Filipino and Pacific Islander divers alongside Torres Strait Islanders, and the Japanese cemetery holds more than seven hundred graves of divers killed by the bends or by cyclones. Green Hill Fort, built in the 1890s against a feared Russian attack, stands above the town with views over the strait. The Gab Titui Cultural Centre shows Torres Strait Islander art and artefacts, and the culture here is Melanesian rather than mainland Aboriginal.

History

Torres Strait Islanders have lived here for thousands of years, and finds on Badu, Pulu, Saibai and Mer show Melanesian settlement from around 2,600 years ago. Captain Owen Stanley of HMS Rattlesnake surveyed the area in 1848 and named this island Friday Island, but in June 1855 the Admiralty hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort switched the names to keep the east-west sequence with Wednesday Island. The first European settlement in the strait, Somerset on Cape York, proved a hazardous port, and in 1875 the Queensland and British governments agreed to move it to the deep anchorage of Thursday Island; an administrative centre was set up in 1877, and by 1883 over 200 pearling vessels were based here, drawing workers from Japan, Malaya and India to gather pearl shell, used mainly for shirt buttons (Wikipedia, Thursday Island).

Highlights

• The Japanese cemetery - hundreds of graves of pearl divers from the pearling era.
• Green Hill Fort - the 1890s fortifications above the town.
• Gab Titui Cultural Centre - Torres Strait Islander art and cultural material.
• The strait - islands, currents and shipping between two countries.

When to go

May to October for the dry season; the wet brings monsoon rain and rough seas. The Coming of the Light festival on 1 July is the major cultural event. Flights and ferries are limited and should be booked well ahead.

Things to know

Getting there is expensive, by air to Horn Island then ferry, or a long drive up Cape York. Accommodation is limited and costly. Alcohol restrictions apply in parts of the region, and visitors should be aware they are guests in a distinct cultural community.

Nearby

Horn Island holds the airport; Cape York's tip is across the water south.

Key facts