Thursday Island
| Thursday Island | ||
|---|---|---|
.png) and Hammond Island (top) |
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| Waters | Torres Strait ( Pacific Ocean ) | |
| Archipelago | Thursday Islands | |
| Geographical location | 10 ° 34 '44 " S , 142 ° 13' 12" O | |
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| length | 2.7 km | |
| width | 1.3 km | |
| surface | 3.5 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Milman Hill 104 m |
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| Residents | 2938 (2016) 839 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Town of Thursday Island |
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Thursday Iceland , by the native Strait Islanders Torres has always Waiben called, is the administrative and commercial center of the islands in the Torres Strait . The administration of the Torres Shire , the Shire Council , has its seat here. The town on the island, Town of Thursday Island , is the administrative seat of the northernmost community ( called Shire in Queensland ) of Australia , Torres Shire.
etymology
The western name of the island comes from Captain William Bligh , who drove the Torres Strait from June 2 (Tuesday) to June 5, 1789 (Friday) towards the west ( Kupang ). Some of the islands he passed, he named Tuesday Islets , Wednesday Island , Thursday Island and Friday Island after the days of the week of his four-day transit . Sunday Island, which he passed on the previous Sunday, May 31, 1789, is located around 200 kilometers southeast of the Torres Strait Islands near the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula .
geography
Thursday Island is 39 km off the Cape York Peninsula in the northwest of the Australian state of Queensland . The island is geographically part of the same named Thursday Islands , an archipelago of the Torres Strait Islands , which also includes the Horn - Hammond - Prince of Wales - and the Friday Island are politically part of the Inner Islands , a Island region in the Torres Shire county of Queensland.
Thursday Island has an area of 3.50 km² and a population of more than 2,900 people. The highest point on the island, Milman Hill , is 104 m high.
Population development
The population development of Thursday Island over the past 10 years has been largely stable.
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2791 | 2839 | 2852 | 2832 | 2841 | 2755 | 2823 | 2924 | 2887 | 2912 |
climate
The climate is tropical with an average daily temperature of 29 ° C. The warmest month is November with a temperature of 31.4 ° C, which drops to 27.6 ° C by July. The annual average maximum is 30.2 ° C, the minimum 24.2 ° C.
Rainfall dominates in January with an average of 389 mm, while September and October only reach an average of 3 mm. Approximately 1,716 mm of rain falls over the course of an entire year.
economy
Thursday Island's port is called Port Kennedy . The island is home to one of the two headquarters of the Torres Strait Pilots , a cooperative of qualified seafarers who guide ships through the strait to Cairns . The Torres Strait is notorious for its numerous reefs .
The mother-of-pearl industry and fisheries, and increasingly also aquaculture, are still important . Tourism is also becoming more and more important. Historically, William Somerset Maugham and the Australian author and poet "Banjo" Paterson have been the most famous tourists.
The Torres Strait Campus of the Tropical North Queensland TAFE Institute , a technical college adjacent to the general school, is the highest-ranking educational institution in Torres Strait. In addition, there has been an outpost of James Cook University on the island since 2003 , which offers courses in teaching and health and nursing .
The only places to stay and tourist facilities are on Thursday Island and Horn Island.
history
The island has probably been inhabited by Melanesian Torres Strait islanders for thousands of years , who originally called the island Waiben , which probably means dry place and alludes to the low freshwater resources. In 1877 the Queensland government established institutions to administer the islands on Thursday Island, and over the following decade an independent community developed there.
Mother of Pearl and Immigration
In 1885 the pearl and especially mother-of-pearl industry began on the island, which also attracted workers from Asia, especially people from Japan , Malaysia and India . In addition, workers were imported from the South Pacific islands, often against their will, as was common in Queensland at the time. While these industries lost their importance again over the following decades, their legacy is still alive in the ethnic mix.
Second World War
During World War II , Thursday Island became the region's military headquarters for Australian and American forces. As a result, the Torres Strait Islands were bombed several times by the Japanese Air Force in 1942 , which in turn led to the evacuation of the civilian population. It was only allowed to return after the war. Thursday Island itself was not attacked, which is attributed to the fact that numerous Japanese-born pearl divers had their final resting place on the island.
Airport
Horn Island , about 8 km to the east, was attacked several times during World War II , as there was an air force base there, which the Allies used to attack Japanese positions in nearby New Guinea . The airport still exists today and integrates Torres Strait into the Australian flight network. From Horn Island Airport, it's just 10 minutes by ferry to Thursday Island.
Horn Island (Ngurapai) Airport has been operated by the island community since 1995 and is undergoing a fundamental renovation. The airport is approved for international flights and has two runways. The longer one is almost 1,400 meters long, 30 meters wide and has lighting.
There are two daily passenger services to Cairns and regular connections to most of the islands. In addition, there are charter services that also include helicopters .
See also
Web links
- Official website of the Torres Shire Council
- State Library of Queensland, Footprints Before Me: Torres Strait Island Communities - Thursday Island
- Nautical chart from 1893
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : Thursday Island (SSC) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
- ↑ Queensland Government: Estimated resident population by urban center and locality, Queensland, 2001 to 2010 ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Australian Bureau of Meteorology - data for Thursday Island
- ↑ James Cook University website - TI page ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The 30 most beautiful sights in Queensland Australia . In: HAPPYTRAVELS . August 3, 2018 ( happytravels.de [accessed August 20, 2018]).
