Torres Strait Side Trip

Although I've called this a "side trip" technically we reached our northernmost point out in the islands. Also, this is an Ultimate-free few days, so it must be a side trip, n'est-ce pas? More about that later. 

Here's where we went ...

Torres Strait Islands

... and this is how we got there ...

This is the main ferry that runs between Thursday Island and Siesia on the mainland. It holds upward of a hundred passengers and the ride takes a little over an hour.

Horn Island

Masterful Max, in his wisdom decided to book us in for two nights on Horn Island. One of the first things that's a bit different - well, none of us had seen its like before - was this sign as you get off the wharf ...

Hmmm. Maybe they've had a few people fall out of the back of utilities ...?

We stayed at the Gateway Torres Strait Resort. A pretty grand name, eh! (That's the Canadian eh. Not to be confused with the Queensland eh. More about being Canadian here.) If you're envisaging 5 star accommodation, forget it. You won't find that anywhere in the Straits. (By the way, have you seen the ABC TV series called "The Straits"? Probably not to everyone's taste, it's described as " an exotic and darkly humorous family crime series". Anyway, we enjoyed it. You can buy the series, or probably borrow it from your local library.)  

Back to our accommodation. Here's a photo of a sign that greets you upon arrival ...

A nice greeting, eh?

The Gateway worked well for us. It's run by a sixth generation Torres Strait island family, and they know the islands well. The Gateway - I hesitate to call it "the resort" because something far more grand comes to mind with that phrase - houses the Torres Strait Heritage Museum and Art Gallery, developed by curator Vanessa Seekee, OAM. I'm not trying to act as an advert for the Gateway, but you get unlimited free entry - when it's open - to the museum if you're staying there. 'Nuff said.

We had a couple of hours to ourselves before lunch and then we went off on our Horn Island tour with Vanessa. Max specifically asked for her when he booked our package because he and Prue had met her when they were out on the islands way back in 2002 (when they stayed on Thursday Island and did a day trip to Horn) and found her interpretation outstanding. Well, she is still bringing her A game when she comes out to bat.

Horn Island is described as the forgotten outpost of World War II, but Vanessa is doing her bit to change all that. She has obtained a grant from the Federal Government to restore some of the ruins of the defence network that was in place to protect the airfield from Japanese attacks and reconstruction will begin soon. In the meantime, she and husband Liberty have been doing a great job in interpreting what's there. Here's a photo of Vanessa telling us about one of the 3.7" anti-aircraft gun placements ...

... and a close-up of the picture in the book she is  holding ...

The actual gun placement is set into a concreted, sunken area that is surrounded by magazine bays like this ...

... so that the gun can be loaded easily whatever direction it is pointing.

The following two pictures are what's left of a Boeing B-17 that crashed as it was coming into land with a whole lot of parts and ammunition on board ...

... and here's what the plane looked like ...

There are concrete trenches in at least two different locations that allowed soldiers to move from an information-gathering spot back to central intelligence relaying points ...

They travel around corners so that if a section of trench is hit by a blast the force won't travel unabated all the way to  the other end.

For me, the most sobering part of our historical tour was visiting the grave of Roy Brown, an American soldier, and listening to Vanessa tell his tale. He is the only non Islander buried on the island. When he was nearing the end of his life he made it clear that he would dearly love for his ashes to be buried on Horn Island where he served alongside his mates. Application was made to the council of elders that make these sort of decisions and, after a long period of consideration, they granted permission. Here is photo from the grave ...

Back to the theme of nature, there was this Screw Palm growing in the area where a lot of this historical wreckage is found ...

There is a great network of ferries and water taxies running between the islands which makes getting around really easy. this is the "Australia Fair" which we used to get to and from Thursday Island ...

We walked down to the wharf one evening to have a look at the sunset, which was okay but not special enough to post a photo. However, there were lots of Darters around, and plenty of little fish for them to feed on. it's a great sight to see them come up with fish and manipulate them into positions that allow them to be gulped down their necks. At times they didn't seem particular interested in fishing, just gliding about the wharf and looked beautiful with feathers streaming out behind. This picture isn't particularly good but gives you an idea of what I'm talking about ...

They are just as beautiful out of the water ...

The highlight of being the beach that evening though was watching a Royal Spoonbill searching little pools of water for stuff to eat. Di took this neat little video while we were down there ...

Interestingly, the airport is on Horn Island but the bulk of the population live on Thursday Island. This is a historical thing as TI has a more sheltered anchorage, positioned as it is amongst the surrounding islands. However, Horn Island has a wharf with quite a big crane, perhaps to unload fuel for airplanes. Here's a photo taken at low tide ... 

As you would imagine, people on the islands are very sea-oriented. It seemed like just about everybody had a boat parked in their front yard. In the evening there was a lot of activity down at the boat ramp. This photo seems to capture the mood of the place pretty well...

For our dinner, Di and I decided to have a meal at the pub down the road. Food was very good and the menu was reasonably varied. The most interesting thing though was this amphibious craft parked out the back ...

Thursday Island

About four thousand people live on TI, as Thursday Island is know by anyone living in this part of the world. We had a tour of the place on our second day, led by Arthur Liberty Seekee. Liberty, as he prefers to be known, is native to the islands, with his family's history here stretching back over a century. Here he is posing at the cemetery with a pearl shell ...

... which sits on the memorial to all the Japanese divers who perished while diving ...

Here's what the plaque says about that ...

While the plaque lists the number of deaths as 700, Liberty reckoned that it was more in the order of 1100. Pretty sobering stuff. Sadly, there seems not to be someone who looks after their graves, judging by the state of this section of the cemetery ...

A major point of historical interest is Green Hill Fort, built in the late 19th century as a reaction to the fear of invasion by, of all people, the Russians. We can't beat the website linked to in the previous sentence for photos of the fort itself, but there is also a neat little museum in the fortifications. We didn't have long there but I did take this snap of the old-fashioned diver's suit ...

... and of this map of the islands, with various routes marked in. Note also the dugout canoe in the foreground, along with the turtle shell, paddles and other shells ...

While some folks might prefer constant blue skies, we have been enjoying more mixed conditions. We have had some stretches of sunshine but it hasn't been too hot or muggy and we've had lots of different sorts of skies to look at, including this beautiful moody vista from the "Main Wharf" on TI that I took while we were waiting for the ferry back to Horn Island ...

.. and one that Di took when we arrived back on Horn Island ...

Friday Island

I'm not sure the others agree, but for me visiting Friday Island was the highlight of our sojourn on the islands. It's all about the Kazu Pearl farm, run by Kazuyoshi Takami. We landed ... 

... walked past the whale skeleton on the beach ...

and went straight to lunch. And what a lunch it was!

This is just a small sample of what we were served ...

As you can see, despite the very generous platefuls of food there wasn't a lot left when we finished ...

Top quality fresh food, shared with friends, is always a great pleasure. But the experience of being taken through what goes on at the pearl farm, most especially the skill involved in pearl seeding process, was a very special moment. A great deal of detail about the way the pearl is formed was given. How's this for a graphic demonstration of the anatomy of the pearl shell oyster ...

There is a small window of time for being able to have the oysters out of the water, gradually using wooden wedges to get it to open up and then insert a bit of mantle and the seed pearl. Here are a couple of snaps of Kazu-san operating on an oyster ...

The incision has to been done just so, and the two foreign bodies inserted in just the right place. Kazu-san told us that, despite his 40 years experience of doing this tricky operation, he only has a success rate of somewhere between seventy and eighty percent.

This eight minute Youtube video shows Kazu-san in action explaining what he's doing ...

That's about it for this post, folks, except a last word about the people of the islands. I don't think I've been anywhere that I've felt more welcome. Everyone had a smile and a greeting. That may sound a bit of a cliché. Sorry, but it's true. I didn't see a scowl or an argument anywhere. Stress doesn't seem to be part of life in Torres Strait. So, if you want sometime to experience a bit of laid-back south sea island life and catch a bit of little-known Australian history, I highly recommend a few days off "the tip". 

Oh yeah.  Maybe just one more word. (If you're wearing a starched collar, stop reading now.) Speaking of laid-back lifestyle I took this little study along the waterfront on TI, across from the Federal Hotel ...

Cheerio, chaps!