Difference between revisions of "Torres Strait Islands" - New World Encyclopedia

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The '''Torres Strait Islands''' are a group of at least 274 small islands that lie in [[Torres Strait]], the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of [[New Guinea]]. They are part of Queensland, a constituent state of the [[Australia|Commonwealth of Australia]], with a special status fitting the native (Melanesian) land rights, administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority.  
{{Infobox Country
 
| native_name              = Commonwealth of Australia
 
| common_name              = Australia
 
| image_flag              = Flag of Australia.svg
 
| symbol_type              = Coat of arms
 
| image_coat              = Australian coat of arms 1912 edit.jpg
 
| image_map                = AustraliaWorldMap.png
 
| national_motto          = "Advance, Australia!"
 
| national_anthem          = ''[[Advance Australia Fair]]''<br>[[Royal anthem]]: ''[[God Save the Queen]]''
 
| official_languages      = [[English language|English]] (''de facto''&nbsp;<sup>1</sup>)
 
| capital                  = [[Canberra]] |
 
latd=35|latm=15|latNS=S|longd=149|longm=28|longEW=E|
 
| largest_city            = [[Sydney]]
 
| government_type          = [[Federal Constitutional Monarchy|Constitutional&nbsp;monarchy (federal)]]
 
| leader_title1            = [[Queen of Australia|Queen]]
 
| leader_title2            = [[Governor-General of Australia|Governor-General]]
 
| leader_title3            = [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]]
 
| leader_name1            = [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Elizabeth II]]
 
| leader_name2            = [[Michael Jeffery]]
 
| leader_name3            = [[John Howard]]
 
| area_rank                = 6th
 
| area_magnitude          = 1 E12
 
| area                    = 7,741,220
 
| areami²                  = 2,988,888 <!--Do not remove [[WP:MOSNUM]]—>
 
| percent_water            = 1
 
| population_estimate      = 20,555,300<sup>2</sup>
 
| population_estimate_year = 2006
 
| population_estimate_rank = 53rd
 
| population_census        = 18,972,350
 
| population_census_year  = 2001
 
| population_density      = 2.6
 
| population_densitymi²    = 6.7 <!--Do not remove [[WP:MOSNUM]]—>
 
| population_density_rank  = 224th
 
| sovereignty_type        = [[Independence]]
 
| sovereignty_note        = from the [[United Kingdom|UK]]
 
| established_event1      = [[Constitution of Australia|Constitution]]
 
| established_event2      = [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]]
 
| established_event3      = [[Australia Act 1986|Australia Act]]
 
| established_date1        = [[1 January]] [[1901]]
 
| established_date2        = [[11 December]] [[1931]]
 
| established_date3        = [[3 March]] [[1986]]
 
| currency                = [[Australian dollar]]
 
| currency_code            = AUD
 
| time_zone                = [[States and territories of Australia|various]]<sup>2</sup>
 
| utc_offset              = +8 to +10
 
| time_zone_DST            = [[States and territories of Australia|various]]<sup>2</sup>
 
| utc_offset_DST          = +8 to +11
 
| cctld                    = [[.au]]
 
| calling_code            = 61
 
| ISO_3166-1_alpha2        = AU
 
| ISO_3166-1_alpha3        = AUS
 
| ISO_3166-1_numeric      = 036
 
| sport_code              = AUS
 
| vehicle_code            = AUS
 
| GDP_PPP_year            = 2006
 
| GDP_PPP                  = $674.9 billion
 
| GDP_PPP_rank            = 17th
 
| GDP_PPP_per_capita      = $30,897
 
| GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank  = 14th
 
| HDI_year                = 2003
 
| HDI                      = 0.955
 
| HDI_rank                = 3rd
 
| HDI_category            = <font color=#009900>high</font>
 
|
 
}}footnotes                = <sup>1</sup>&nbsp;English does not have ''de jure'' official status
 
  
{{merge-from|Torres Strait Islanders}}
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The Torres Strait Islanders are a sea-faring people. They have been at the forefront of the cultural clash that came with the British colonisation of Australia, most notably in what came to be known as the Mabo case, which overturned a century-old legal doctrine that held that native title over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at the time of annexation.
The '''Torres Strait Islands''' are a group of at least 274 small [[islands]] which lie in [[Torres Strait]], the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's [[Cape York Peninsula]] and the island of [[New Guinea]].  
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They are part of [[Queensland]], a constituent State of the [[Australia|Commonwealth of Australia]], with a special status fitting the native (Melanesian) land rights, administered by the [[Torres Strait Regional Authority]].  
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== Geography ==
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[[Image:TorresStraitIslandsMap.png|thumb|400px|Torres Strait Islands]]
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The islands are distributed across an area of some 48,000km². The distance across the Strait from Cape York to New Guinea is approximately 150km at the narrowest point; the islands lie scattered in between, extending some 200km to 300km from east to west.
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The Torres Strait itself was a land bridge that connected the present-day Australian continent with New Guinea (in a single landmass called Sahul or Australia-New Guinea). This land bridge was most recently submerged by rising sea levels at the termination of the last ice age glaciation (approximately 12,000 years ago), forming the strait that now connects the Arafura Sea and Coral Sea. Many of the western Torres Strait Islands are actually the remaining peaks of this land bridge that were not submerged when the ocean levels rose.
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The islands and their surrounding waters and reefs provide a highly diverse set of land and marine ecosystems, with niches for many rare or unique species. Marine animals of the islands include dugongs (an endangered species of sea mammal mostly found in New Guinean waters), as well as Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill turtle and Flatback Turtle.
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The Torres Strait Islands may be grouped into five distinct clusters, which exhibit differences of geology and formation.
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The Top Western islands lie close to the southwestern coastline of New Guinea. Saibai Island and Boigu Island are low-lying islands formed by deposits of sediments and mud from New Guinean rivers accumulating on decayed coral platforms. Vegetation consists of mangrove swamps, and they are prone to flooding. Duaun Island (Mount Cornwallis) is a smaller island with steep hills, composed largely of granite, and represents the northernmost extent of the Great Dividing Range, which runs along the eastern coastline of Australia.
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The Near Western islands lie south of the strait's midway point, and are largely high granite hills with mounds of basaltic outcrops, formed from old peaks of the now submerged land bridge.
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The Central islands are widely distributed in the middle of Torres Strait, consisting of many small sandy cays surrounded by coral reefs, similar to those found in the nearby Great Barrier Reef. The more northerly islands, such as Gebar (Two Brothers) and Iama Island (Yam Island), are high basaltic outcrops.
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The Eastern islands (principally Murray Island, Dauar and Waier, with Darnley Island and Stephen Island further north) are the peaks of volcanoes which were formerly active in Pleistocene times. Their hillsides have rich and fertile red volcanic soils, and are thickly vegetated. The easternmost of these are less than 20km from the northern extension of the Great Barrier Reef.
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The Inner islands, also known as the Thursday Island group, lie closest to Cape York Peninsula, and their topography and geological history is similar. Prince of Wales Island is the largest of the strait's islands, and forms the centre of this closely grouped cluster. Another small island is Dumaralug Island, which is found a few hundred meters south of Muralag. Several of these islands have permanent freshwater springs, and some were also mined for gold in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because of their proximity to the Australian mainland, they have also been centres of pearl hunting and fishing industries. Ngurapai (Horn Island), holds the region's airport, and as a result is something of an entrepôt with inhabitants drawn from many other communities. Hammond Island is the other permanently settled island of this group. Tuined (Possession Island) is noted for British explorer James Cook's landing there in 1770.
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The much smaller Waiben (Thursday Island) is the region's administrative and commercial centre and most heavily populated. Lying 39km north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, in the Torres Strait, Thursday Island has an area of about three kilometres square. Of the 8000 or so Islanders living in the Torres Strait, approximately half live on Thursday Island, and the other half are distributed between the 14 inhabited islands throughout the region.
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Thursday Island experiences a tropical climate with an average daily temperature of 29 degrees Celsius: The hottest month is traditionally November (31.4 degrees Celsius) while the coldest is July (27.6 degrees Celsius). January typically experiences the highest rainfall (389 mm) and September and October average 3 mm.
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[[Image:ThursdayIsland.JPG|right|thumb|250px|View of the Township of [[Thursday Island]].]]
  
 
== History ==
 
== History ==
It was at [[Possession Island, Queensland|Possession Island]] that [[Captain James Cook]] first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of [[Australia]] in [[1770]]. The London Missionary Society arrived on [[Darnley Island, Torres Strait|Erub (Darnley Island)]] in 1871. The Torres Strait Islands were annexed in 1879 by Queensland. They thus later became part of the British colony of Queensland, although some of them lie just off the coast of New Guinea.  
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The first inhabitants of the Torres Strait are believed to have migrated from the Indonesian archipelago 70,000 years ago at a time when New Guinea was still attached to the Australian continent. Further waves of migration followed.
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The original inhabitants lived in small communities relying on fishing, hunting and the growing of crops for their subsistence. Trade in artefacts made of pearl shell, turtle shell, feathers, canoes and tools was important.
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Although it is likely that Chinese, Malay and Indonesian traders had explored the islands before him, the first European navigator credited with finding the islands was the Portuguese maritime explorer (serving the Spanish crown) Luis Vaez de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606.
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English explorer Captain James Cook, in 1770, visited Possession Island, where he claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of [[Australia]].  
  
In 1888-1889 the Torres Strait Islands were visited by the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition resulting in a drastic depletion of their cultural artifacts.
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The London Missionary Society arrived on Darnley Island in 1871.
  
In 1904, the Torres Strait Islanders become subject to the [[Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act]]. [http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=54 1897 (QLD)]
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The discovery of pearl shell in the 1860s led to an influx of people from all over the region (Japanese, Malays, Filipinos, Micronesians and Europeans) especially to Thursday Island, which became the main settlement. Pearl shells were harvested to make shirt buttons. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner and crew. By 1877, a total of 16 firms were established on Thursday Island employing 700 people and more than a hundred pearl ships, known as “luggers.” That year, the Queensland Government set up an administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands on Thursday Island and a township developed over the next decade.
  
The proximity to Papua New Guinea became an issue when it was moving towards [[independence]] from Australia, which it gained in [[1975]]. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, but the Papua New Guinea government objected to complete Australian control over the waters of the strait.
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Queensland annexed the Torres Strait Islands in 1879. Elected island councils and law courts were set up. Islanders were encouraged to participate in the flourishing marine industry that relied on cheap labour to remain viable. They thus later became part of the British colony of Queensland, although some of them lie just off the coast of New Guinea.
  
Eventually an agreement was struck whereby the islands and their inhabitants remain Australian, but the maritime frontier between Australia and Papua New Guinea runs through the centre of the strait. In practice the two countries co-operate closely in the management of the strait's resources.
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In 1888-1889, the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition visited the Torres Strait Islands, resulting in a drastic depletion of their cultural artefacts. In 1904, the Torres Strait Islanders become subject to the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act.
  
In [[1982]], [[Eddie Mabo]] and four other Torres Strait Islanders from Mer (Murray Island) started legal proceedings to establish their traditional land ownership. Because Mabo was the first-named plaintiff, it became known as the [[Mabo|Mabo Case]]. In [[1992]], after ten years of hearings before the [[Queensland Supreme Court]] and the [[High Court of Australia]], the latter court found that Mer people had owned their land prior to annexation by Queensland.
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In the early 1900s a former London Missionary Society missionary established Papuan Industries Limited to encourage further Islander participation in the marine industry. Island families or clans were able to buy their own pearling boats through the company.
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By the end of the 1920s islanders owned almost 25 percent of the pearling fleet in the Torres Strait.  
  
This ruling overturned the century-old [[legal doctrine]] of ''[[terra nullius]]'' ("no-one's land"), which held that [[native title]] over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at the time of annexation. The ruling was thus of far-reaching significance for the land claims of both Torres Strait Islanders and [[Australian Aborigine]]s.
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But Island customary ways of working clashed with European work practices. By the early 1930s, control of Papuan Industries Limited was handed over to government administrators. In January 1936, islanders went on strike refusing to work the boats until conditions improved. The strike was the first organized Islander challenge to European authority. Although the pearl trade stopped after World War II, cultured pearl farms continued to operate until 1970, when a disease attacked the shells.
  
On [[1 July]] 1994 the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was created.  
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During [[World War II]], Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. In 1942, the Japanese bombed neighbouring Horn Island, which had an airbase used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. Civilians were evacuated from Thursday Island. They did not return until after the end of the war.  
Chairmen of the Torres Strait Islands Regional Authority:
 
*1 July 1994 - March 1997 Getano Lui, Jr. (b. 1952)
 
*March 1997 - [[19 April]] 2000  John Abednego
 
*19 April 2000 - May 2004 Terry Waia
 
*May 2004 - 20. John Toshie Kris
 
  
== Geography ==
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The Torres Strait islanders became citizens of Queensland in 1967 with full access to health and social services and freedom to travel and work in Australia. Many thousands of Islanders live in Queensland today.
[[Image:TorresStraitIslandsMap.png|thumb|400px|Torres Strait Islands]]
 
The islands are distributed across an area of some 48&nbsp;000&nbsp;[[square kilometre|km²]]. The distance across the Strait from Cape York to New Guinea is approximately 150&nbsp;[[kilometre|km]] at the narrowest point; the islands lie scattered in between, extending some 200-300&nbsp;km from furthest east to furthest west.
 
 
The Torres Strait itself was formerly a [[land bridge]] which connected the present-day Australian continent with New Guinea (in a single landmass called [[Sahul]] or [[Australia-New Guinea]]). This land bridge was most recently submerged by rising sea levels at the termination of the last [[ice age]] [[glaciation]] (approximately 12,000 years ago), forming the Strait which now connects the [[Arafura Sea|Arafura]] and [[Coral Sea|Coral]] seas. Many of the western Torres Strait Islands are actually the remaining peaks of this land bridge which were not submerged when the ocean levels rose.
 
  
The islands and their surrounding waters and reefs provide a highly diverse set of land and marine [[ecosystem]]s, with niches for many rare or unique species. Marine animals of the islands include [[dugong]]s (an [[endangered species]] of [[Sirenia|sea mammal]] mostly found in New Guinean waters), as well as [[Green Sea Turtle|Green]], [[Hawksbill turtle|Hawksbill]] and [[Flatback Turtle|Flatback]] Sea turtles.
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The proximity to Papua New Guinea became an issue when it was moving towards independence from Australia, which it gained in 1975. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, but [[Papua New Guinea]] sought to include the islands within its borders. Eventually an agreement was struck whereby the islands and their inhabitants remained Australian, but the maritime frontier between Australia and Papua New Guinea runs through the centre of the strait. In practice the two countries co-operate closely in the management of the strait's resources.
  
The Torres Strait Islands may be grouped into five distinct clusters, which exhibit differences of [[geology]] and formation as well as location.
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== Politics ==
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An Australian Commonwealth statutory authority called the Torres Strait Regional Authority created on July 1, 1994, is responsible for governance of the islands. The authority has an elected board comprising 20 representatives from the Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal communities resident in the Torres Strait region. There is one representative per established local community. The administrative centre of the islands is Thursday Island. The Queensland statutory authority, the Island Coordinating Council, represents the local communities at the state level.
  
=== Top Western islands ===
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At the local level there are 18 authorities, the Torres Shire Council which governs several islands and portions of Cape York Peninsula and operates as a Queensland local government area. There are 17 Torres Strait Island Councils. These areas have been relinquished by the Government of Queensland to specific Islander and aboriginal councils.  
The islands in this cluster lie very close to the southwestern coastline of New Guinea (the closest is less than 4&nbsp;[[kilometre|km]] offshore). [[Saibai Island|Saibai]] (one of the largest of the Torres Strait Islands) and [[Boigu Island|Boigu]] are low-lying islands which were formed by [[alluvial deposit]]s of sediments and mud from New Guinean rivers into the Strait accumulating on decayed coral platforms. Vegetation on these islands mainly consists of [[mangrove]] swamps, and they are prone to [[flood]]ing.
 
  
The other main island in this group, [[Duaun Island|Dauan]] (Mt. Cornwallis), is a smaller island with steep hills, composed largely of [[granite]]. This island actually represents the northernmost extent of the [[Great Dividing Range]], the extensive series of [[mountain range]]s which runs along almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia. This peak became an island as the ocean levels rose at the end of the last ice age.
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Land ownership and  a desire for self-determination were the main issues in Torres Strait politics at the end of the twentieth century.
  
=== Near Western islands ===
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In 1982, [[Eddie Mabo]] and four other Torres Strait Islanders from Mer (Murray Island) started legal proceedings to establish traditional land ownership. Because Mabo was the first-named plaintiff, it became known as the Mabo Case. In 1992, after ten years of hearings before the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia, the latter court found that Mer people had owned their land prior to annexation by Queensland.
The islands in this cluster lie south of the Strait's midway point, and are also largely high granite hills with mounds of [[basalt]]ic outcrops, formed from old peaks of the now submerged land bridge. [[Moa Island, Torres Strait|Moa]] (Banks Island) is the second-largest in the Torres Strait, and [[Badu Island, Torres Strait|Badu]] (Mulgrave Island) is slightly smaller and fringed with extensive mangrove swamps. Other smaller islands include [[Mabuiag Island|Mabuiag]], Pulu and further to the east [[Naghir]] (Mt. Ernest).
 
  
=== Inner islands ===
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This ruling overturned the century-old legal doctrine of ''terra nullius'' ("no-one's land"), that held that native title over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at the time of annexation. The ruling was thus of far-reaching significance for the land claims of both Torres Strait Islanders and Australian Aborigines. Since the Mabo decision, several communities (Saibai Islanders and Mualgal people from Moa Island) have secured legal recognition of their native title rights over their islands. Several other cases are also in progress.
These islands, also known as the Thursday Island group, lie closest to Cape York Peninsula, and their [[topography]] and geological history is very similar. [[Prince of Wales Island, Torres Strait|Muralag (Prince of Wales Island)]] is the largest of the Strait's islands, and forms the centre of this closely grouped cluster. The much smaller Waiben [[Thursday Island]] is the region's administrative centre and most heavily populated. Another small island is [[Dumaralug Island, Queensland|Dumaralug Island]] which is found a few hundred meters south of Muralag. Several of these islands have permanent freshwater springs, and some were also mined for [[gold]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of their proximity to the Australian mainland, they have also been centres of [[pearl hunting|pearling]] and [[fishing]] industries. Ngurapai [[Horn Island, Queensland|Horn Island]] holds the region's airport, and as a result is something of an [[entrepôt]] with inhabitants drawn from many other communities. [[Hammong Island|Kiriri]] (Hammond Island) is the other permanently settled island of this group; Tuined (Possession Island) is noted for [[James Cook|Lt. James Cook]]'s landing there in 1770.
 
  
=== Central islands ===
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Other issues include: The planned building of a A$2-billion gas pipeline from Kutubu in Papua New Guinea across the Torres Strait to Queensland, water rights, as well as drug and people smuggling from Papua New Guinea.
This cluster is more widely distributed in the middle of Torres Strait, consisting of many small sandy [[cay]]s surrounded by [[coral reef]]s, similar to those found in the nearby [[Great Barrier Reef]]. The more northerly islands in this group however, such as Gebar (Two Brothers) and [[Iama Island|Iama (Yam Island)]], are high basaltic outcrops, not cays. The low-lying inhabited coral cays, such as [[Poruma Island|Poruma (Coconut Island)]], [[Warraber IslandWarraber (Sue Island)]] and [[Masig Island|Masig (Yorke Island)]] are mostly less than 2-3&nbsp;km long, and no wider than 800&nbsp;[[metre|m]]. Several have had problems with saltwater intrusion.
 
  
=== Eastern islands ===
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==Economy==
The islands of this group (principally [[Murray Island|Mer (Murray Island)]], Dauar and Waier, with [[Darnley Island|Erub (Darnley Island)]] and [[Stephen Island|Ugar (Stephen Island)]] further north) are formed differently from the rest. They are [[volcano|volcanic]] in origin, the peaks of volcanoes which were formerly active in [[Pleistocene]] times. Consequently their hillsides have rich and fertile red volcanic soils, and are thickly vegetated. The easternmost of these are less than 20&nbsp;km from the northern extension of the Great Barrier Reef.
 
  
== Administration ==
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Fishing is the main economic activity, particularly fishing for prawns, rock lobsters and Spanish mackerel, along with subsistence horticulture. The sustainable commercial exploitation of marine resources is considered crucial to employment and economic development in the region. Sharing regional responsibility for the management of these fisheries is therefore a primary cultural and economic goal of Torres Strait Islanders.
An Australian Commonwealth statutory authority called the [[Torres Strait Regional Authority]] (TSRA) is responsible for governance of the islands. The TSRA has an elected board comprising 20  representatives from the [[Torres Strait Islander]] and [[Australian Aborigines|Aboriginal]] communities resident in the Torres Strait region. There is one representative per established local community. These board members are elected under the ''[[Queensland Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984]]'' and Division 5 of the ''[[ATSIC Act 1989]]''. The TSRA itself falls under the portfolio responsibilities of the [[Government of Australia|Australian Government]] [[Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Australia)|Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs]] (previously under the [[Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia)|Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs]]). The administrative centre of the islands is [[Thursday Island]]. The Queensland stautory authority the [[Island Coordinating Council]] (ICC), represents the local communities at the state level.
 
  
At the local level there are 18 authorities, the [[Torres Shire Council]] which governs several islands and portions of Cape York Peninsula and operates as a Queensland [[Local Government Area]]. There are 17 Torres Strait Island Councils which are community governments, these areas have been relinquished by the [[Government of Queensland]] to specific Islander and Aboriginal Councils under the provisions of the ''Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984'' and the ''Community Services (Aboriginal) Act 1984''.
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After the Second World War Ansett Airlines set up an airline service from Cairns to Thursday Island, using DeHaviland Dragon Rapides and later DC3s. Passengers disembarked on Horne Island and caught a ferry boat over to Thursday Island. The island was also served by a ship the “Elsana” which made the journey once a month.  
{{col-begin}}
 
{{col-break}}
 
*Badu Island Council
 
*Bamaga Island Council
 
*Boigu Island Council
 
*Dauan Island Council
 
*Erub Island Council
 
  
{{col-break}}
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[[Image:CustomsHouse.JPG|left|thumb|250px|Customs House on [[Thursday Island]].]]
*Hammond Island Council
 
*Iama Island Council
 
*Kubin Island Council
 
*Mabuiag Island Council
 
*Mer Island Council
 
  
{{col-break}}
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Thursday Island was one of the two bases for the Torres Straits Pilots, a cooperative owned and run by qualified Master Mariners who piloted 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.
*Poruma Island Council
 
*Saibai Island Council
 
*Seisia Island Council
 
*St Pauls Island Council
 
*Ugar Island Council
 
  
{{col-break}}
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The economy of Thursday Island is supported by a fast developing tourism industry, with perhaps the most famous tourist being novelist [[Somerset Maugham]]. ( A.B."Banjo" Paterson, the journalist and poet, who wrote "Waltzing Matilda" as well as many other famous Australian songs and poems, visited the island and wrote quite extensively about it). Elsewhere, tourism is limited by a lack of facilities.
*Warraber Island Council
 
*Yorke Island Council
 
{{col-end}}
 
  
 
== Demographics ==
 
== Demographics ==
[[Torres Strait Islanders]], the [[indigenous peoples]] of the islands, are [[Melanesian]]s, culturally most akin to the coastal peoples of [[Papua New Guinea]]. Thus they are regarded as being distinct from other [[indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] peoples of Australia, and are generally referred to separately. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland, Bamaga and Seisia.
 
  
According to the 2001 Australian census [[Australian Bureau of Statistics|ABS figures]], the population of the Torres Strait Islands was 8089 (up from an estimated 6700 in 2000), of whom 6214 were either of [[Torres Strait Islanders|Torres Strait Islander]] or Aboriginal origin.
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Torres Strait Islanders, the indigenous peoples of the islands, are Melanesians, culturally most akin to the coastal peoples of [[Papua New Guinea]]. Thus they are regarded as being distinct from other indigenous or aboriginal peoples of Australia, and are generally referred to separately. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland, Bamaga and Seisia.
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According to the 2001 Australian census, the population of the Torres Strait Islands was 8089 (up from an estimated 6700 in 2000). A total of 6214 was either of Torres Strait Islanders or Aboriginal origin. Another 42,000 live outside the region, mainly in the coastal towns of north Queensland, particularly in Townsville and Cairns.
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Since missionaries arrived from the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia in 1871, Christianity became the pre-eminent religious and social force throughout the Strait, spawning scores of different denominations throughout the islands. Since the initial contact was by the London Missionary Society and since 1915, contact with the Anglican Church, English Protestantism prevailed. Although it may seem extraordinary that the region’s fierce, animistic warrior kingdoms took to Christianity, but its simplest form of faith in a higher being was not dissimilar to the teachings of the Malo worship. One of the first islander converts was a Malo cult leader, Aet Passi . The consequent end to the vicious cycle of warfare and headhunting was welcomed.
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Although English is the official language, there are two languages indigenous to Torres Strait Islanders. The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language does not have its own name, and has four major dialects. The language of eastern Torres Strait is Meriam Mìr. This is a Papuan language and is related to the languages of the nearby coast of [[Papua New Guinea]]. Meriam Mir is the only Papuan language indigenous to Australia, and used to have two dialects.
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A third language of the Torres Straits is a creole language that has developed over the last hundred or so years. This Torres Strait Creole is also known as ''Blaikman Tok'', ''Broken/Brokan'' and ''Yumplatok''.  It has around five dialects, Papuan, Western-Central, Eastern, TI and Cape York.
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==Culture==
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Torres Strait Islanders have many cultural similarities with the people of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. Although they had long-standing contact with Australian Aboriginal people in the south and Melanesians to the north, the islanders are a distinct people with their own culture and identity.
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Central to Torres Strait Islanders’ sense of identity are the extended families, within which respect for elders is preserved. Families provide the framework within which obligations to kin are met, the sharing of resources is ensured, and is the source of emotional and spiritual support.
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The Torres Strait Islanders are a sea-faring people, travelling long distances in search of turtles and dugong, and trading with other islands and villages on the Papuan coast. Given that 91 per cent of their traditional area is open ocean, the sea is central to their sense of identity having determined their way of life, subsistence practices and ceremonial life. The sea remains the source of inspiration for many of their songs and stories and is treated with great respect.
 +
 
 +
A main ceremony is the tombstone unveiling. No less that 12 months after the body is buried, the engraved tombstone is unveiled and blessed by a priest. Feasting and traditional dancing celebrates the occasion that acknowledges a final resting place for the spirit of the deceased, the end of the period of mourning, the fulfilment of obligation and the reinforcement of island custom through the reunion of kin.
 +
 
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As well as maintaining their distinct culture, Torres Strait Islanders have made an important contribution to Australia's economic development in the pearling industry, the building of railways, the sugar industry and arts and culture.
 +
 
 +
Customary adoption of children is a feature of the culture, and requests for birth certificates can cause discomfort within families.
 +
 
 +
[[Image:Torres Strait Islanders Flag.svg|thumb|right|200px|Torres Strait Islander Flag - Ratio: 2:3]]
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The '''Torres Strait Islander flag''' is an official Flag of Australia. It was designed in 1992 by Bernard Namok, who was at the time a 15-year-old school student from Thursday Island. It won a local competition held by the Islands Coordinating Council, and was recognised by the [[Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission]] in June 1992.
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The green stripes at the top and the bottom of the flag represent the land, and the blue stripe in the centre represents the waters of the [[Torres Strait]]. The thin black stripes between the blue and green segments represent the Torres Strait Islanders themselves. The white five-pointed star at the centre of the flag represents the five major island groups, and the white headdress around it also represents the Torres Strait Islands people.
  
There are three indigenous languages spoken on the islands: [[Kala Lagaw Ya]], [[Meriam Mir language|Meriam Mir]], and [[Torres Strait Creole]].
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Queensland-born Torres Strait Islander Wendell Sailor is one of the most famous players to have represented [[Australia]] in both rugby union and rugby league. His career came to an end in 2006 after he was found to have used cocaine before a football match. His large frame (1.91 meters, 106kg) and bullocking style changed the way wingers played rugby league in the late nineties. His big-money move from the Brisbane Broncos to the Queensland Reds in 2001 created many headlines, as did his move at the end of the 2005 Super 14 season to the New South Wales Waratahs.
  
 
==References and external links==
 
==References and external links==

Revision as of 03:01, 12 October 2006

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands that lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They are part of Queensland, a constituent state of the Commonwealth of Australia, with a special status fitting the native (Melanesian) land rights, administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority.

The Torres Strait Islanders are a sea-faring people. They have been at the forefront of the cultural clash that came with the British colonisation of Australia, most notably in what came to be known as the Mabo case, which overturned a century-old legal doctrine that held that native title over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at the time of annexation.

Geography

Torres Strait Islands

The islands are distributed across an area of some 48,000km². The distance across the Strait from Cape York to New Guinea is approximately 150km at the narrowest point; the islands lie scattered in between, extending some 200km to 300km from east to west.

The Torres Strait itself was a land bridge that connected the present-day Australian continent with New Guinea (in a single landmass called Sahul or Australia-New Guinea). This land bridge was most recently submerged by rising sea levels at the termination of the last ice age glaciation (approximately 12,000 years ago), forming the strait that now connects the Arafura Sea and Coral Sea. Many of the western Torres Strait Islands are actually the remaining peaks of this land bridge that were not submerged when the ocean levels rose.

The islands and their surrounding waters and reefs provide a highly diverse set of land and marine ecosystems, with niches for many rare or unique species. Marine animals of the islands include dugongs (an endangered species of sea mammal mostly found in New Guinean waters), as well as Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill turtle and Flatback Turtle.

The Torres Strait Islands may be grouped into five distinct clusters, which exhibit differences of geology and formation.

The Top Western islands lie close to the southwestern coastline of New Guinea. Saibai Island and Boigu Island are low-lying islands formed by deposits of sediments and mud from New Guinean rivers accumulating on decayed coral platforms. Vegetation consists of mangrove swamps, and they are prone to flooding. Duaun Island (Mount Cornwallis) is a smaller island with steep hills, composed largely of granite, and represents the northernmost extent of the Great Dividing Range, which runs along the eastern coastline of Australia.

The Near Western islands lie south of the strait's midway point, and are largely high granite hills with mounds of basaltic outcrops, formed from old peaks of the now submerged land bridge.

The Central islands are widely distributed in the middle of Torres Strait, consisting of many small sandy cays surrounded by coral reefs, similar to those found in the nearby Great Barrier Reef. The more northerly islands, such as Gebar (Two Brothers) and Iama Island (Yam Island), are high basaltic outcrops.

The Eastern islands (principally Murray Island, Dauar and Waier, with Darnley Island and Stephen Island further north) are the peaks of volcanoes which were formerly active in Pleistocene times. Their hillsides have rich and fertile red volcanic soils, and are thickly vegetated. The easternmost of these are less than 20km from the northern extension of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Inner islands, also known as the Thursday Island group, lie closest to Cape York Peninsula, and their topography and geological history is similar. Prince of Wales Island is the largest of the strait's islands, and forms the centre of this closely grouped cluster. Another small island is Dumaralug Island, which is found a few hundred meters south of Muralag. Several of these islands have permanent freshwater springs, and some were also mined for gold in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because of their proximity to the Australian mainland, they have also been centres of pearl hunting and fishing industries. Ngurapai (Horn Island), holds the region's airport, and as a result is something of an entrepôt with inhabitants drawn from many other communities. Hammond Island is the other permanently settled island of this group. Tuined (Possession Island) is noted for British explorer James Cook's landing there in 1770.

The much smaller Waiben (Thursday Island) is the region's administrative and commercial centre and most heavily populated. Lying 39km north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, in the Torres Strait, Thursday Island has an area of about three kilometres square. Of the 8000 or so Islanders living in the Torres Strait, approximately half live on Thursday Island, and the other half are distributed between the 14 inhabited islands throughout the region.

Thursday Island experiences a tropical climate with an average daily temperature of 29 degrees Celsius: The hottest month is traditionally November (31.4 degrees Celsius) while the coldest is July (27.6 degrees Celsius). January typically experiences the highest rainfall (389 mm) and September and October average 3 mm.

View of the Township of Thursday Island.

History

The first inhabitants of the Torres Strait are believed to have migrated from the Indonesian archipelago 70,000 years ago at a time when New Guinea was still attached to the Australian continent. Further waves of migration followed.

The original inhabitants lived in small communities relying on fishing, hunting and the growing of crops for their subsistence. Trade in artefacts made of pearl shell, turtle shell, feathers, canoes and tools was important.

Although it is likely that Chinese, Malay and Indonesian traders had explored the islands before him, the first European navigator credited with finding the islands was the Portuguese maritime explorer (serving the Spanish crown) Luis Vaez de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606.

English explorer Captain James Cook, in 1770, visited Possession Island, where he claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia.

The London Missionary Society arrived on Darnley Island in 1871.

The discovery of pearl shell in the 1860s led to an influx of people from all over the region (Japanese, Malays, Filipinos, Micronesians and Europeans) especially to Thursday Island, which became the main settlement. Pearl shells were harvested to make shirt buttons. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner and crew. By 1877, a total of 16 firms were established on Thursday Island employing 700 people and more than a hundred pearl ships, known as “luggers.” That year, the Queensland Government set up an administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands on Thursday Island and a township developed over the next decade.

Queensland annexed the Torres Strait Islands in 1879. Elected island councils and law courts were set up. Islanders were encouraged to participate in the flourishing marine industry that relied on cheap labour to remain viable. They thus later became part of the British colony of Queensland, although some of them lie just off the coast of New Guinea.

In 1888-1889, the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition visited the Torres Strait Islands, resulting in a drastic depletion of their cultural artefacts. In 1904, the Torres Strait Islanders become subject to the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act.

In the early 1900s a former London Missionary Society missionary established Papuan Industries Limited to encourage further Islander participation in the marine industry. Island families or clans were able to buy their own pearling boats through the company. By the end of the 1920s islanders owned almost 25 percent of the pearling fleet in the Torres Strait.

But Island customary ways of working clashed with European work practices. By the early 1930s, control of Papuan Industries Limited was handed over to government administrators. In January 1936, islanders went on strike refusing to work the boats until conditions improved. The strike was the first organized Islander challenge to European authority. Although the pearl trade stopped after World War II, cultured pearl farms continued to operate until 1970, when a disease attacked the shells.

During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. In 1942, the Japanese bombed neighbouring Horn Island, which had an airbase used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. Civilians were evacuated from Thursday Island. They did not return until after the end of the war.

The Torres Strait islanders became citizens of Queensland in 1967 with full access to health and social services and freedom to travel and work in Australia. Many thousands of Islanders live in Queensland today.

The proximity to Papua New Guinea became an issue when it was moving towards independence from Australia, which it gained in 1975. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, but Papua New Guinea sought to include the islands within its borders. Eventually an agreement was struck whereby the islands and their inhabitants remained Australian, but the maritime frontier between Australia and Papua New Guinea runs through the centre of the strait. In practice the two countries co-operate closely in the management of the strait's resources.

Politics

An Australian Commonwealth statutory authority called the Torres Strait Regional Authority created on July 1, 1994, is responsible for governance of the islands. The authority has an elected board comprising 20 representatives from the Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal communities resident in the Torres Strait region. There is one representative per established local community. The administrative centre of the islands is Thursday Island. The Queensland statutory authority, the Island Coordinating Council, represents the local communities at the state level.

At the local level there are 18 authorities, the Torres Shire Council which governs several islands and portions of Cape York Peninsula and operates as a Queensland local government area. There are 17 Torres Strait Island Councils. These areas have been relinquished by the Government of Queensland to specific Islander and aboriginal councils.

Land ownership and a desire for self-determination were the main issues in Torres Strait politics at the end of the twentieth century.

In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Torres Strait Islanders from Mer (Murray Island) started legal proceedings to establish traditional land ownership. Because Mabo was the first-named plaintiff, it became known as the Mabo Case. In 1992, after ten years of hearings before the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia, the latter court found that Mer people had owned their land prior to annexation by Queensland.

This ruling overturned the century-old legal doctrine of terra nullius ("no-one's land"), that held that native title over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at the time of annexation. The ruling was thus of far-reaching significance for the land claims of both Torres Strait Islanders and Australian Aborigines. Since the Mabo decision, several communities (Saibai Islanders and Mualgal people from Moa Island) have secured legal recognition of their native title rights over their islands. Several other cases are also in progress.

Other issues include: The planned building of a A$2-billion gas pipeline from Kutubu in Papua New Guinea across the Torres Strait to Queensland, water rights, as well as drug and people smuggling from Papua New Guinea.

Economy

Fishing is the main economic activity, particularly fishing for prawns, rock lobsters and Spanish mackerel, along with subsistence horticulture. The sustainable commercial exploitation of marine resources is considered crucial to employment and economic development in the region. Sharing regional responsibility for the management of these fisheries is therefore a primary cultural and economic goal of Torres Strait Islanders.

After the Second World War Ansett Airlines set up an airline service from Cairns to Thursday Island, using DeHaviland Dragon Rapides and later DC3s. Passengers disembarked on Horne Island and caught a ferry boat over to Thursday Island. The island was also served by a ship the “Elsana” which made the journey once a month.

Customs House on Thursday Island.

Thursday Island was one of the two bases for the Torres Straits Pilots, a cooperative owned and run by qualified Master Mariners who piloted 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 economy of Thursday Island is supported by a fast developing tourism industry, with perhaps the most famous tourist being novelist Somerset Maugham. ( A.B."Banjo" Paterson, the journalist and poet, who wrote "Waltzing Matilda" as well as many other famous Australian songs and poems, visited the island and wrote quite extensively about it). Elsewhere, tourism is limited by a lack of facilities.

Demographics

Torres Strait Islanders, the indigenous peoples of the islands, are Melanesians, culturally most akin to the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea. Thus they are regarded as being distinct from other indigenous or aboriginal peoples of Australia, and are generally referred to separately. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland, Bamaga and Seisia.

According to the 2001 Australian census, the population of the Torres Strait Islands was 8089 (up from an estimated 6700 in 2000). A total of 6214 was either of Torres Strait Islanders or Aboriginal origin. Another 42,000 live outside the region, mainly in the coastal towns of north Queensland, particularly in Townsville and Cairns.

Since missionaries arrived from the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia in 1871, Christianity became the pre-eminent religious and social force throughout the Strait, spawning scores of different denominations throughout the islands. Since the initial contact was by the London Missionary Society and since 1915, contact with the Anglican Church, English Protestantism prevailed. Although it may seem extraordinary that the region’s fierce, animistic warrior kingdoms took to Christianity, but its simplest form of faith in a higher being was not dissimilar to the teachings of the Malo worship. One of the first islander converts was a Malo cult leader, Aet Passi . The consequent end to the vicious cycle of warfare and headhunting was welcomed.

Although English is the official language, there are two languages indigenous to Torres Strait Islanders. The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language does not have its own name, and has four major dialects. The language of eastern Torres Strait is Meriam Mìr. This is a Papuan language and is related to the languages of the nearby coast of Papua New Guinea. Meriam Mir is the only Papuan language indigenous to Australia, and used to have two dialects.

A third language of the Torres Straits is a creole language that has developed over the last hundred or so years. This Torres Strait Creole is also known as Blaikman Tok, Broken/Brokan and Yumplatok. It has around five dialects, Papuan, Western-Central, Eastern, TI and Cape York.

Culture

Torres Strait Islanders have many cultural similarities with the people of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. Although they had long-standing contact with Australian Aboriginal people in the south and Melanesians to the north, the islanders are a distinct people with their own culture and identity.

Central to Torres Strait Islanders’ sense of identity are the extended families, within which respect for elders is preserved. Families provide the framework within which obligations to kin are met, the sharing of resources is ensured, and is the source of emotional and spiritual support.

The Torres Strait Islanders are a sea-faring people, travelling long distances in search of turtles and dugong, and trading with other islands and villages on the Papuan coast. Given that 91 per cent of their traditional area is open ocean, the sea is central to their sense of identity having determined their way of life, subsistence practices and ceremonial life. The sea remains the source of inspiration for many of their songs and stories and is treated with great respect.

A main ceremony is the tombstone unveiling. No less that 12 months after the body is buried, the engraved tombstone is unveiled and blessed by a priest. Feasting and traditional dancing celebrates the occasion that acknowledges a final resting place for the spirit of the deceased, the end of the period of mourning, the fulfilment of obligation and the reinforcement of island custom through the reunion of kin.

As well as maintaining their distinct culture, Torres Strait Islanders have made an important contribution to Australia's economic development in the pearling industry, the building of railways, the sugar industry and arts and culture.

Customary adoption of children is a feature of the culture, and requests for birth certificates can cause discomfort within families.

File:Torres Strait Islanders Flag.svg
Torres Strait Islander Flag - Ratio: 2:3

The Torres Strait Islander flag is an official Flag of Australia. It was designed in 1992 by Bernard Namok, who was at the time a 15-year-old school student from Thursday Island. It won a local competition held by the Islands Coordinating Council, and was recognised by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in June 1992.

The green stripes at the top and the bottom of the flag represent the land, and the blue stripe in the centre represents the waters of the Torres Strait. The thin black stripes between the blue and green segments represent the Torres Strait Islanders themselves. The white five-pointed star at the centre of the flag represents the five major island groups, and the white headdress around it also represents the Torres Strait Islands people.

Queensland-born Torres Strait Islander Wendell Sailor is one of the most famous players to have represented Australia in both rugby union and rugby league. His career came to an end in 2006 after he was found to have used cocaine before a football match. His large frame (1.91 meters, 106kg) and bullocking style changed the way wingers played rugby league in the late nineties. His big-money move from the Brisbane Broncos to the Queensland Reds in 2001 created many headlines, as did his move at the end of the 2005 Super 14 season to the New South Wales Waratahs.

References and external links

de:Torres Strait Islands es:Islas del estrecho de Torres pl:Wyspy w Cieśninie Torresa pt:Ilhas do Estreito de Torres

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