Torres Strait Islands

Torres Strait Islands
	Map of the islands
Waters	Torres Strait ( Pacific Ocean )
Geographical location	9 ° 53 ' S , 142 ° 35' E Coordinates: 9 ° 53 ' S , 142 ° 35' E
Number of islands	270
Main island	Thursday Island
Total land area	1000 km²
	Thursday Island with city.

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of islands in the Torres Strait marine passage between the northern tip of Australia , Cape York , and the south coast of Papua New Guinea . Most of them belong to the Australian state of Queensland . Some islands along the south coast of New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

They include over 270 islands, of which only 21 are inhabited (19 on the Australian side and Daru and Parama Island on the Papua New Guinea side). The main island is Thursday Island ( Waiben ) on the Australian side . Daru as the provincial capital of the Western Province of New Guinea is even bigger. The largest island in terms of area is the neighboring and barely populated Prince of Wales Island .

history

The islands were part of the land bridge between New Guinea and Australia until about 6000 years ago. About 1000 years ago they were settled by Melanesian seafarers.

In 1606, six months before Luiz Vaéz de Torres , after whom these islands were named, the Dutchman Willem Janszoon discovered the islands with his ship, the Duyfken . In 1770 the Torres Strait Islands were occupied by the British under James Cook as part of Australia.

Political structure

The islands of the Torres Strait Islands, which mostly belong to Australia (some northern islands like Daru belong to Papua New Guinea , they are close to its coast), administratively belong to the municipality of Torres Shire and are divided into five administrative units (island regions) from north to south :

Top western group
Western group
Central group
Eastern group
Inner Islands group (with the main island Thursday Island)

Residents

Flag of the Torres Strait Islanders

On the islands in addition to the official language is English , among other Mabuiag, Meriam and the common language Torres Strait Creole (one the Tok Pisin related Papua New Guinea Creole language ) spoken. In 2001, the population of all islands, with the exception of Daru and Parama, which belong to Papua New Guinea, was 8069. Of these, 6214 were Torres Strait islanders ( Melanesians or Papua ) or Aboriginal people .

The islands have long suffered from ongoing migration to mainland Australia.

literature

Ian Crawshaw: Australia walkabout - travel guide for the Australia of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander , Sabine Muschter editor of the German edition, Intuitiv media, Kiel 2011, ISBN 978-3-00029490-7 .
Donald M. Schug: The Marine Realm and a Sense of Place Among the Papua New Guinean Communities of the Torres Strait. 1995.
Alfred C. Haddon (Ed.): Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. 6 volumes. 1901–1935 overview
Wolfgang Laade: Notes on the clans, economy, trade and traditional law of the Murray Islanders, Torres Straits. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. N ° 39, Tome 29, 1973, pp. 151-167.

Web links

Commons : Torres Strait Islands - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files