| Thursday Island Queensland |
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View of the Township of Thursday Island |
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Thursday Island
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| Population: | 2,546 (2006 Census)[1] | ||||||
| Postcode: | 4875 | ||||||
| Elevation: | 8.0 m (26 ft) | ||||||
| Area: | 3.5 km² (1.4 sq mi) | ||||||
| Location: |
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| LGA: | Shire of Torres | ||||||
| State District: | Cook | ||||||
| Federal Division: | Leichhardt | ||||||
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Thursday Island, also known as TI or Waiben, is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait Islands. Lying 39 kilometres (24 mi) north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia in the Torres Strait, Thursday Island has an area of about 3.5 square kilometres (1.4 sq mi). The highest point on Thursday Island, standing at 104 metres (341 ft) above sea level, is Milman Hill, a World War II defence facility. At the 2006 census, Thursday Island had a population of 2,546.[1]
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The island has been populated for thousands of years by the Melanesian Torres Strait Islanders, who named the island Waiben, thought to mean 'no water' or 'place of no water', owing to the scarcity of fresh water on the island. In 1877, an administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands was set up on the island by the Queensland Government and by 1883 over 200 pearling vessels were based on the island.[2]
A lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1885, attracting workers from around Asia, including Japan, Malaya and India, seeking their fortune.[3] The Japanese community was in part indentured divers and boat hands who returned to Japan after a period of service and some longer term residents who were active in boat building and in the ownership of luggers for hire - which was illegal but bypassed by leases through third parties back to other Japanese, a practice called "dummying"[4] Additionally, many south Pacific Islanders were worked in the industry, many of who's ancestors were originally imported against their will (see Blackbirding). While the pearling industry has declined in importance, the mix of cultures is evident to this day. The pearling industry centred on the harvesting of pearl shell, which was used mainly to make shirt buttons.
The local pearl oyster is Golden Lip Oyster, Pinctada maxima. Trochus shell was also gathered by boats that specialised in this. Most shell was exported as the raw material - to a London based market. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew.[5] The boats used were very graceful two-masted luggers. In shallow water free diving was used while in deeper water diver's dress, or an abbreviated form of it, with a surface air supply was used. In good times there were three divers to a lugger, a stern diver, one midships, and one diver off the bow. A manual air compressor was used. It looked like a yard-wide cube with two large wheels mounted one on each side. For part of the fleet that operated further from TI, larger vessels, typically schooners were used as mother ships to the luggers.[6] Shell was usually opened on the mother vessels rather than on the luggers, in order to secure any pearls found. The waters of the Straits are murky and visibility was generally very poor. Even though dive depths were not great, except at the Darnley Deep (near Darnley or Erub Island), which was 40 fathoms (240 feet), attacks of the bends were common and deaths frequent.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries TI was a regular stop for vessels trading between the east coast of Australia and South East Asia. A shipping disaster to a vessel in this service occurred in 1890 when RMS Quetta struck an uncharted reef in the Strait and sank in 5 minutes with the loss of over 130 lives. The Anglican Church on TI built shortly afterwards was named the Quetta All Souls Memorial Cathedral in memory of the event.[7] Today the church is called All Souls and St Bartholomew Church.
Cyclone Mahina, which hit Bathurst Bay south east of TI in 1899, wrecked the TI pearling fleet sheltering there, with huge losses of vessels and lives.[6]
The fear of Russian invasion as a result of the deterioration of relations between the Russian Empire and the British Empire led to a fort on Battery Point being built in 1892 to protect the island.[2][7] The fort has not operated as such since 1927 but is today a heritage feature of the island.[8]
Local pearling declined steadily up to the Second World War, partly through competition from a Japanese based fleet which did not use local resources or personnel. In the 1950s plastic buttons imitating pearl supplanted much of the demand for shell.[7] Before the decline, pearl fishing was taken by the TI-based fleet to the Aru Islands in what was then the Dutch East Indies.[9]
During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. January 1942 saw the evacuation of civilians from the island.[7] Residents of Japanese origin or descent were interned. The residents did not return until after the end of the war and many ethnic Japanese were forceably repatriated. The island was spared from bombing in WWII, due, it was thought, to it being the burial place of many Japanese pearlshell divers, or possibly the Japanese thinking there were still Japanese resident. However, neighbouring Horn Island was extensively bombed. There was an airbase there, used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. At the end of the war, the island tradition of a no-footwear policy was reinstated in respect for the ancient spirits believed to reside on the island. After the war, an airline service was set up by Ansett Airlines from Cairns to TI twice a week, using de Havilland Dragon Rapides and later DC3s. Passengers disembarked on Horn Island and caught a ferry-boat over to TI, as they still do. The island was also served by a ship, the Elsana, which made the journey once a month. For a short period after the war Okinawan divers were used on the luggers but this was not a great success.
In the 1950s, the CSIRO attempted to establish cultured pearl farms, but many were devastated by disease in the 1970s. The trigger is considered by some to be the use of dispersants on the 1970 oil spill from the tanker Oceanic Grandeur. This industry still exists around the island today. In the 1970s, there was also an attempt to farm green turtles.[2]
The Melanesian background of the Thursday Islanders became an issue in the 1970s, when Papua New Guinea sought to include some of the Torres Strait Islands within its borders. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, however, and after considerable diplomatic discussion and political disputation between the Queensland and the Federal Governments, all of the Torres Strait islands, including Thursday Island, remained part of Australia [1].
The Island is one of the two bases for the Torres Straits Pilots, a cooperative owned and run by qualified Master Mariners who pilot ships through the Straits and down to Cairns. This is a necessary service because navigation through the area is tricky due to the extensive reef systems.
The island has the area hospital and courts, is the regional centre for higher education, a centre for some research organisations and is the administrative base for the local, state and federal governments.
Thursday Island is only in part self-sufficient for water, some being piped from the adjacent island. It has two wind turbines which generate some of its electricity requirement.
The economy of the island is dependent on its role as an administrative centre and is supported by pearling and fishing, as well as a fast-developing tourism industry, with perhaps the most famous tourists being novelist Somerset Maugham and Banjo Paterson.
| Climate data for Thursday Island | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 30.8 (87.4) |
30.2 (86.4) |
30.6 (87.1) |
30.5 (86.9) |
29.9 (85.8) |
29.0 (84.2) |
28.3 (82.9) |
28.6 (83.5) |
29.4 (84.9) |
30.7 (87.3) |
32.1 (89.8) |
31.9 (89.4) |
30.2 (86.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 25.1 (77.2) |
24.8 (76.6) |
24.9 (76.8) |
24.8 (76.6) |
24.3 (75.7) |
23.4 (74.1) |
22.7 (72.9) |
22.6 (72.7) |
23.1 (73.6) |
24.2 (75.6) |
25.2 (77.4) |
25.5 (77.9) |
24.2 (75.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 435.1 (17.13) |
407.2 (16.031) |
339.0 (13.346) |
201.7 (7.941) |
53.0 (2.087) |
15.8 (0.622) |
10.5 (0.413) |
6.7 (0.264) |
3.1 (0.122) |
9.1 (0.358) |
45.1 (1.776) |
192.8 (7.591) |
1,758.6 (69.236) |
Torres Strait Creole is the dominant language spoken on Thursday Island by the Islanders, followed by Kala Lagaw Ya, although English is also spoken. The indigenous language is Kaiwalgau Ya (otherwise known as Kowrareg), a dialect of Kala Lagaw Ya.
The Thursday Island township is noteworthy for being the most northerly town in Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Shire of Torres. The Torres Strait Campus of the Tropical North Queensland TAFE Institute located on the island next to the high school is the leader in education for the Torres Strait.