Australia's most northerly hotel

Thursday Island jetty

Thursday Island, also known as TI or Waiben, is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait Islands. Lying 39 kilometres north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia in the Torres Strait, Thursday Island has an area of about 3.5 square kilometres and an estimated population of 3,500. The highest point on Thursday Island, standing at 104 metres above sea level, is Milman Hill, a World War II defence facility.

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. The economy of the island 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.

History: 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.
A lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1885, attracting workers from around Asia, including Japan, Malaya and India, seeking their fortune. Additionally, many south Pacific Islanders were also imported to work in the industry, many against their will. 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 to make shirt buttons. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew. The boats used were a very graceful two-masted lugger with, in good times, 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. The waters of the Straits are murky and visibility was generally very poor. Depths of dive were not great except at the Darnley Deep which was 40 fathoms . Attacks of the bends were common and deaths frequent.
The fear of Russian invasion lead to a fort on Battery Point being built in 1892 to protect the island. During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. As a result, the island was bombed by the Japanese in 1942, which saw the evacuation of civilians from the island. They did not return until after the end of the war. The island was mostly spared from bombing in WWII, due, it was thought, to it being the burial place of many Japanese pearl shell divers. However, neighbouring Horn Island was extensively bombed. It had an air base there, used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. Following the conclusion 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. The island was also served by a ship, the Elsana, which made the journey once a month.
In the 1950s the CSIRO attempted to establish a cultured pearl industry and in the 1970s there was an attempt to farm green turtles.
The Melanesian background of the Thursday Islanders became an issue in the 1970s, when Papua New Guinea sought to include the Torres Strait Islands within its borders. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, however, and after considerable diplomatic discussion all of the Torres Strait, including Thursday Island, remained part of Australia.

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