Sadly, today was our last day in Australia. Thursday Island is located at the very northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula of Australia. The island is a part of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago consisting of at least 274 small islands, 17 of which are inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders.
The Islands have a population of approximately 4500 with 90% identifying as Indigenous Torres Strait Island people. Although counted as Indigenous Australians, the people are predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically and culturally different from Aboriginal Australians.
The small town on Thursday Island is a hub for the Island people it is where several of the Torres Strait Regional Authority offices are located, as well as the only hospital in the Torres Strait.
We were welcomed to the island by one of the Island’s elders who explained a little bit about the Island’s and their people, followed by a cultural dance performance by local school children.
The island is very isolated and reminded me of a tropical version of Kodiak, Alaska. The island was once home to a thriving pearl fishing industry. From the late 1800’s, divers came from Japan, Malaysia and India to harvest these precious stones. Today the island’s primary industry is fishing, and community leaders are making an attempt to attract more tourism to the area.
One of the impressive things we noticed throughout Australia was their respect for veterans. Every town we visited, large or small, had a monument of some sort. Melbourne had the huge memorial and museum we showed earlier in this blog, and even tiny Thursday Island had beautiful memorial in their city park.
We will be at sea for the next three days. Our next port of call will be in Komodo, Indonesia on Thursday, 29 February.
“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” Margaret Lee Runbeck
Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune 
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