| A
three-square-kilometre speck within sight of the mainland, between Prince
of Wales, Hammond and Horn islands, Thursday Island wears a few
aliases: coined “Sink of the Pacific” for the variety of peoples who
passed through in pearling days, the local tag is Waiben or (very
loosely) “Thirsty Island” – once a reference to the availability of
drinking water and now a laconic aside on the quantity of beer consumed.
The hotel clock with no hands hints at the pace of life and it’s only
for events like Christmas, when wall-to-wall aluminium punts from
neighbouring islands make the harbour look like a maritime supermarket car
park, that things liven up. Other chances to catch Thursday in carnival
spirit are during the Coming of the Light festivities on July 1, and for
the Island of Origin rugby league matches later in the same month: in one
season 25 people were hospitalized, and the spectators often play as big a
part in the action as do the teams. |
|
| In
town there are traces of the old Chinatown district around
Milman Street, and a reminder of Queensland’s worst shipping disaster in
the Quetta Memorial Church, way down Douglas Street, built after
the ship hit an uncharted rock in the Adolphus Channel in 1890 and went
down with virtually all the Europeans on board. The Aplin Road cemetery,
where two of the victims are buried, has tiled Islander tombs and
depressing numbers of Japanese graves, each marked by a short
pillar and kanji inscription. All died diving for pearls. As a by-product
of the industry, Japanese crews had accurately mapped the Strait before
the last war and it’s no coincidence that the airstrip was bombed when
hostilities were declared in 1942; fortifications are still in place on
Thursday’s east coast. Bunkers and naval cannon at the Old Fort
on the opposite side date from the 1890s.
Though you generally need permission from the
local council, it’s possible that you may be privately invited to other
islands in the Strait. While some are within outboard range – “one
drum trips” – you’re looking at $110 or more each way to fly to
anywhere more distant. Far to the east, Murray Island (Mer) is
enticing for its remoteness and importance in island history. To the north
are Badu, centre of the Strait’s burgeoning crayfish industry,
and Saibai, a low deltaic island just 16km from the New Guinea
mainland. This is the only place in Australia where you can see another
country, but regular trading across the Strait has recently included
“grass-for-guns” exchanges, and New Guinea is not the place to be
caught without a visa.
Practicalities |
| There
are ferries to Thursday Island every weekday morning from Cape York
(2hr), Punsand Bay (1hr 30min) and Seisia (1hr 15min); prices are around
$45 each way. Passing Possession Island on the way over, you come
within sight of a plaque commemorating James Cook’s landing here on
August 22, 1770, when he planted the flag for George III and Great
Britain. Then it’s into the shallow channel between Prince of Wales and
Horn islands. Horn has an airport (with regular flights to and from
Cairns) and open-cut gold mine, while Prince of Wales is the
Strait’s largest island, stocked with deer and settled by an overflow
population unable to afford Thursday’s exorbitant land premiums.
The wharf on Thursday sits below the
colonial-style Customs House, a minute from the town centre on Douglas
Street. Here you’ll find a post office with payphones, the
National Australia bank, cafés and two of the island’s hotels:
the Torres just beats the neighbouring Royal as
Australia’s northernmost bar. Facing the water on Victoria Parade,
the Federal (tel 07/4069 1569; $61–74) is fractionally quieter as
lodgings on a busy night, while on Douglas Street, Mura Mudh
(tel 07/4069 2050; up to $18) is a good value hostel run by Thursday
Islanders.
The one-time mainstay, the Grand (famous
for once briefly accommodating the novelist Somerset Maugham) burned down
in 1993. Other facilities include a travel agent on the corner of
Victoria and Blackall streets (tel 07/4069 1264), and a pharmacy
and laundry on Douglas Street. Willie Nelson’s T.I. Tours (tel
07/4069 1588) meets incoming ferries for a ninety-minute tour of the
island ($15).
Maps |
Cape York Peninsula