Qualla: Thursday Island Cemetery https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:28 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Thursday Island Cemetery https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery Thursday Island Cemetery: Introduction https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery/ Photo credit Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0. On some of the Japanese graves, small concrete birdcages hold food for the spirits of the departed divers. On the newer Torres Strait Islander graves, elaborate tile mosaics in bright colors surround photographs of the dead. At the top of the highest hill, a polished blue granite obelisk marks where a former premier of Queensland chose to be buried -- not in Brisbane or Sydney, but on this small island at the edge of the continent where he had served as government resident for nearly two decades. Thursday Island Cemetery is not merely a place of burial. It is a cross-section of every culture, religion, and ambition that has passed through the Torres Strait since the 1870s.

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Image: Heritage branch staff | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/rnj5-thursday-island-cemetery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Thursday Island Cemetery: The Hill and the Flats https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery/ Photo credit Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0. The cemetery sprawls across 12.77 hectares of sloping ground on the northern side of the island, running from Summers Street at the top down to Aplin Road on the flats. Its layout is a social map. The most influential groups claimed the hilltop: European elites at the summit, wit...

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Image: Heritage branch staff | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/rnj5-thursday-island-cemetery-the-hill-and-the-flats.mp3 0:06 2 full Thursday Island Cemetery: The Divers' Ground https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery/ Photo credit Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0. Between 600 and 700 Japanese graves fill the northeastern flats, the single largest section of the cemetery. These were the men who crewed the pearl luggers, diving in deep water with primitive equipment, breathing through rubber hoses connected to hand-pumped compressors on deck...

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Image: Heritage branch staff | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/rnj5-thursday-island-cemetery-the-divers-ground.mp3 0:06 3 full Thursday Island Cemetery: Faith and Ceremony https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery/ Photo credit Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0. The cemetery holds graves from at least five religious traditions: Christianity, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Islam, with sections for Muslim Indonesians and Malays identifiable by offerings of food and small objects. Most of the early European graves face east, following traditional...

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Image: Heritage branch staff | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/rnj5-thursday-island-cemetery-faith-and-ceremony.mp3 0:06 4 full Thursday Island Cemetery: The Premier on the Hill https://qualla.com/thursday-island-cemetery/ Photo credit Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0. At the very top of the cemetery, overlooking the channel and the scatter of islands beyond, stands the obelisk of John Douglas. He served as Premier of Queensland from 1877 to 1879, then took the post of Government Resident on Thursday Island, serving from 1885 to 1886 and again ...

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Image: Heritage branch staff | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/n/j/5/thursday-island-cemetery-wp/rnj5-thursday-island-cemetery-the-premier-on-the-hill.mp3 0:06 5 full