Thursday Island

Thursday Island has an area of about 3.5 square kilometres (1.4 square miles). The highest point on Thursday Island, standing at 104 metres (341 feet) above sea level, is Milman Hill, a World War II defence facility.

While Thursday Island is within the Shire of Torres and is the administrative centre for that shire, it is also the administrative and commercial centre of the local government area of Torres Strait Island Region despite not being part of that local government area.

The island has been populated for thousands of years by the Torres Strait Islanders, though archeological evidence on Badu, further north in Torres Strait, suggests that the area has been inhabited from before the end of the last Ice Age. The archaeology from Badu, Pulu, Saibai and Mer shows that Melanesian occupation started around 2,600 years ago (see Kalaw Lagaw Ya).

In 1848 a hydrographic survey of the area was conducted by Captain Owen Stanley of the Royal Navy, the commander of HMS Rattlesnake. He named this island Friday Island and another island Thursday Island (presumably reflecting the day of the week on which he named them). However, in June 1855 Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy (the Admiralty Hydrographer) decided to switch the names around so the present-day Thursday Island would appear on the left of present-day Friday Island on a map.[4]

The original place of permanent European settlement in Torres Strait was Somerset, south-east of the tip of Cape York Peninsula, established in 1864. However, the channel between Albany Island and Somerset proved to be hazardous for a port and in 1875 it was jointly decided by the Queensland and British governments to transfer the port to the deep anchorage on the south side of Thursday Island. The new port was called Port Kennedy, after Edmund Kennedy, the explorer of Cape York Peninsula, and was established in 1867.[8][9] The town that developed on the island was also called Port Kennedy, but on 1 June 1962 the town was renamed Thursday Island.[5]

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.[10]

Twentieth century

Customs House on Thursday Island.

Local pearling declined steadily up to World War II, 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.[17] Before the decline, pearl fishing was taken by the island-based fleet to the Aru Islands in what was then the Dutch East Indies.[19]

The Thursday Island Customs House opened in 1938 at 2 Victoria Parade (10.5848°S 142.2209°E / -10.5848; 142.2209 (Thursday Island Customs House (1938))).[20]

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.[17] 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 forcibly repatriated. The island was spared from bombing in World War II, due, it was thought, to it being the burial place of many Japanese pearl shell divers, or possibly the Japanese thinking there were still Japanese residents on the island. However, neighboring 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 out of 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.[21] This industry still exists around the island today. In the 1970s, there was also an attempt to farm green turtles.[10]

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.[22]

From 1900 to 1996 the Quetta Memorial Church on the island was the cathedral church of the large Diocese of Carpentaria which included North Queensland, the Islands of the Torres Strait and, to 1968, Northern Territory.

Twenty-first century

At the 2011 census, Thursday Island had a population of 2,610.[23]

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, TI.

Thursday Island has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Chester Street: Green Hill Fort[24]
• Douglas Street: Quetta Memorial Precinct[25]
• 120 Douglas Street: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church[26]
• Summers Street: Thursday Island Cemetery (incorporating the Japanese Cemetery & the Grave of the Hon. John Douglas)[27]
• 2 Victoria Parade: Thursday Island Customs House[28]

The Gab Titui Cultural Centre (2004) on Thursday Island showcases both heritage and contemporary Islander artworks.[29]

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.[30]

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. Banking and phones are available.

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, and the most numerous being day-trippers from the cruise ships that call into the island each year.[31]

Thursday Island has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification: Aw) with hot daytime temperatures and warm nighttime temperatures year round. The wet season typically runs from December through mid-May though occasionally rainfall occurs during the dry season.

Torres Strait Creole is the dominant language spoken on Thursday Island by the Islanders, followed by Kalaw Lagaw Ya, commonly called Mabuiag (pronounced Mobyag) by many, although English is also spoken.[33][34] The indigenous language is Kaiwaligau Ya, another dialect of Kalaw Lagaw Ya, otherwise known as Kowrareg, (or more correctly Kauraraigau Ya, the name used by the people in the mid to late 1800s).

Thursday Island has number of services open to the community, including a sporting complex, gym, public library as well as ANZAC park and Ken Brown Oval.

There is a community pharmacy, general store, butcher, bank and many other essential services.

The Shire of Torres operates Ngulaig Meta Municipal public library at 121 Douglas Street.[35] The current library facility opened in 2015.[36]

Sacred Heart Catholic Church is in Douglas Street. It is within the Thursday Island Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns.[15]

Tagai State College is a government primary and secondary (Early Childhood-12) school for boys and girls that operates 17 campuses throughout the Torres Strait, including two on Thursday Island. The Thursday Island primary school campus (Early Childhood-6) is at 31 Hargrave Street (10.5817°S 142.2212°E / -10.5817; 142.2212 (Tagai State College - Thursday Island Primary Campus)). The Thursday Island secondary school campus (7-12) is at 21 Aplin Road (10.5774°S 142.2138°E / -10.5774; 142.2138 (Tagai State College - Thursday Island Secondary))[37][38] In 2017, the school across all location had a total enrolment of 1,554 students with 168 teachers (165 full-time equivalent) and 198 non-teaching staff (142 full-time equivalent).[39] The school includes a special education program at Summers Street (10.5800°S 142.2222°E / -10.5800; 142.2222 (Tagai State College - Special Education Program)).[37]

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Normanby Street (10.5830°S 142.2157°E / -10.5830; 142.2157 (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School)).[37][40] In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 103 students with 12 teachers (9 full-time equivalent) and 13 non-teaching staff (9 full-time equivalent).[39]

The Torres Strait Campus of the Tropical North Queensland TAFE Institute is located on the island next to the Tagai State College.

Notable people who are from or who have lived on Thursday Island include:

• Colm Keown, born 17th August 1997, talented musician (accordion) and AFL Sydney player
• Charles Klapow (Choreographer)
• Henry Gibson "Seaman" Dan, award-winning Torres Strait Islander musician.
• John Douglas, Premier of Queensland (1877–79) and Government Resident on Thursday Island (1885-1904).
• Matthew Elliott, Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player
• Tiarna Ernst, professional AFLW and Western Bulldogs Premiership Player.
• Tommy Fujii, mother-of-pearl shell diver as a boy, later businessman[41]
• The Mills Sisters, a group of three musical sisters, Rita and twins Cessa and Ina, who performed all over the Pacific and in Europe between the 1950 and late 1990s.[42]
• Danny Morseu, professional basketball player[43]
• Peter Ware, WAFL premiership winning footballer with Swan Districts.
• Jesse Williams, born on Thursday Island in 1990, the first indigenous Australian to receive a scholarship to play American football for the Alabama Crimson Tide.[44]
• Ethel May Eliza Zahel (1877–1951), teacher and public servant.[45]
• Bernard Namok, designer of the Torres Strait Islander flag.[46]
• Elma Gada Kris, dancer, choreographer, actor, NAIDOC award winner (2019) artist of the year.[47]

• List of Torres Strait Islands
• HMAS Carpentaria

• Foley, Captain John C. H. (2003). Timeless Isle - An Illustrated History of Thursday Island (4th ed.). Torres Strait Historical Society. ISBN 0959266003.

• Island (Waiben) Thursday Island (Waiben)
• Glover's 1879 watercolour of Thursday Island
• "Thursday Island". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland.
• Town map of Thursday Island, 1982
• Thursday Island and North Queensland photograph album, State Library of Queensland. Digitised photograph album, with photos dated between 1800 and 1900
• Brian Cassey Life in the Torres Strait photographs, State Library of Queensland