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download as pdf printable version in other projects wikimedia commons wikivoyage wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide coordinates 10 35 06 s 142 13 14 e 10 585 s 142 2205 e 10 585 142 2205 thursday island town centre from wikipedia the free encyclopedia island in queensland australia map all coordinates using openstreetmap download coordinates as kml gpx all coordinates gpx primary coordinates gpx secondary coordinates town in queensland australia thursday island town view of the township of thursday island thursday island interactive map of thursday island coordinates 10 35 06 s 142 13 14 e 10 585 s 142 2205 e 10 585 142 2205 thursday island town centre country australia state queensland lga shire of torres government state electorate cook federal division leichhardt area total 3 5 km 2 1 4 sq mi elevation 8 0 m 26 2 ft population total 2 805 2021 census 1 density 801 km 2 2 076 sq mi time zone utc 10 00 aest postcode 4875 mean max temp 30 5 c 86 9 f mean min temp 24 7 c 76 5 f annual rainfall 1 791 6 mm 70 54 in localities around thursday island keriri island keriri island torres strait torres strait thursday island horn prince of wales prince of wales horn thursday island native name waiben nickname ti a map of the torres strait islands showing waiben in the south western waters of torres strait geography location northern australia archipelago torres strait islands adjacent to torres strait area 3 5 km 2 1 4 sq mi highest elevation 104 m 341 ft administration australia state queensland thursday island colloquially known as ti or in the kawrareg dialect 2 waiben or waibene 3 is an island of the torres strait islands an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the torres strait thursday island is located approximately 39 kilometres 24 miles north of cape york peninsula in far north queensland australia 4 thursday island is also the name of the town in the south and west of the island formerly known as port kennedy and also the name of the locality which contains the island within the shire of torres 5 6 the town of rose hill known as abednego until 7 september 1991 is located on the north eastern tip of the island 10 34 11 s 142 13 30 e 10 5698 s 142 2250 e 10 5698 142 2250 rose hill queensland 7 in the 2021 census the locality of thursday island had a population of 2 805 people of whom 69 1 identify as indigenous australians 1 geography edit 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 8 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 history edit 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 citation needed 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 likely to preserve the east west naming sequence with the present day friday island and the nearby wednesday island 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 9 10 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 11 pearl trade edit a lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1884 attracting workers from around asia including japan malaya and india seeking their fortune 12 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 13 additionally many south pacific islanders worked in the industry with some originally imported against their will in a practice known as 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 citation needed shell trade edit trochus shell was also gathered using specialized boats 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 14 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 citation needed for part of the fleet that operated further from thursday island larger vessels typically schooners were used as mother ships to the luggers 15 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 citation needed telegraph trade and cyclone edit the thursday island parish of the roman catholic vicariate apostolic of cooktown now the roman catholic diocese of cairns was established in 1884 16 on 25 august 1887 the paterson cape york telegraph station on the west coast of cape york was opened it connected the cape york telegraph line with thursday island via an undersea cable 17 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries thursday island was a regular stop for vessels trading between the east coast of australia and southeast 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 five minutes with the loss of over 130 lives the anglican church on thursday island built shortly afterwards was named the quetta all souls memorial cathedral in memory of the event 18 today the church is called all souls and st bartholomew church 19 joshua slocum the first person to sail alone around the world visited thursday island on this voyage in 1897 at the time of queen victoria s diamond jubilee slocum s memoir describes the jubilee celebrations including a corroboree organised by government resident john douglas 20 cyclone mahina which hit bathurst bay southeast of thursday island in 1899 wrecked the pearling fleet sheltering there with huge losses of vessels and lives 15 fort edit main article green hill fort 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 11 18 the fort has not been in operation since 1927 but is today a heritage feature of the island 21 twentieth century edit 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 18 before the decline pearl fishing was taken by the island based fleet to the aru islands in what was then the dutch east indies 22 the thursday island customs house opened in 1938 at 2 victoria parade 10 35 05 s 142 13 15 e 10 5848 s 142 2209 e 10 5848 142 2209 thursday island customs house 1938 23 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 18 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 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 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 citation needed 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 citation needed 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 24 this industry still exists around the island today in the 1970s there was also an attempt to farm green turtles 11 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 25 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 the northern territory 26 demographics edit in the 2011 census the locality of thursday island had a population of 2 610 people of whom 64 6 identify as indigenous australians 27 in the 2016 census the locality of thursday island had a population of 2 938 people of whom 68 6 identify as indigenous australians 28 in the 2021 census the locality of thursday island had a population of 2 805 people of whom 69 1 identify as indigenous australians 1 heritage listings edit our lady of the sacred heart ti thursday island has a number of heritage listed sites including green hill fort chester street 29 quetta memorial precinct douglas street 30 our lady of the sacred heart church 120 douglas street 31 thursday island cemetery incorporating the japanese cemetery and the grave of the hon john douglas summers street 32 thursday island customs house 2 victoria parade 33 the gab titui cultural centre 2004 on thursday island showcases both heritage and contemporary islander artworks 34 economy edit ports north operates two wharf areas in the torres strait one on thursday island and the other on nearby horn island which also has an airport these islands serve as transport hubs to other islands in the torres strait 35 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 36 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 citation needed 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 citation needed 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 37 climate edit climate data for thursday island was sourced from horn island which is 8 7 km ene of thursday island thursday island has a tropical savanna climate köppen aw with a wet season from december to april and a dry season from may to november temperatures remain hot year round with average maxima ranging from 29 0 c 84 2 f in july to 32 1 c 89 8 f in november average annual rainfall is 1 781 2 mm 70 13 in with a late summer maximum extreme temperatures have ranged from 37 9 c 100 2 f on 8 december 2002 to 15 1 c 59 2 f on 8 september 2019 38 climate data for horn island 10º34 48 s 142º17 24 e 4 m amsl 1995 2024 normals and extremes humidity only to 2010 month jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec year record high c f 36 7 98 1 35 4 95 7 34 8 94 6 33 9 93 0 32 2 90 0 32 4 90 3 31 8 89 2 31 8 89 2 35 8 96 4 35 2 95 4 35 1 95 2 37 9 100 2 37 9 100 2 mean daily maximum c f 30 9 87 6 30 6 87 1 30 5 86 9 30 6 87 1 30 1 86 2 29 5 85 1 29 0 84 2 29 2 84 6 30 2 86 4 31 2 88 2 32 1 89 8 32 0 89 6 30 5 86 9 mean daily minimum c f 25 2 77 4 25 1 77 2 25 1 77 2 25 4 77 7 24 9 76 8 24 1 75 4 23 3 73 9 23 2 73 8 24 0 75 2 24 9 76 8 25 8 78 4 25 9 78 6 24 7 76 5 record low c f 21 5 70 7 21 1 70 0 21 1 70 0 21 1 70 0 17 7 63 9 18 1 64 6 16 0 60 8 15 3 59 5 15 1 59 2 18 4 65 1 19 9 67 8 20 3 68 5 15 1 59 2 average precipitation mm inches 425...