Qualla: Torres Strait

Torres Strait: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ISS Expedition 2 crew, Public domain. Jules Verne stranded Captain Nemo's Nautilus here in 1870, which tells you something about the Torres Strait's reputation. The 150-kilometre-wide passage between Cape York Peninsula and Papua New Guinea contains 274 islands, 580 coral reefs covering 2,400 square kilometres, and some of the most extensive seagrass beds in the world. Its waters are shallow, its tidal currents fierce, its channels maze-like. In 1823, Captain John Lihou became the first to navigate a ship through from west to east, an achievement the Sydney Gazette noted was 'accomplished after the loss of four anchors and the rudder.' The strait has been testing sailors, connecting cultures, and confounding mapmakers for centuries.

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Image: ISS Expedition 2 crew | Public domain

Torres Strait: The Namesake Who Never Saw Australia

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit B51Seisia, CC BY 3.0. Luis Vaz de Torres sailed along the south coast of New Guinea in 1606 as second-in-command of a Spanish expedition that had set out from Peru the previous year. He discovered the passage that now bears his name, but the evidence suggests he never realized a continent lay to his s...

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Image: B51Seisia | CC BY 3.0

Torres Strait: Islands of Every Origin

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Élisée Reclus, Public domain. The strait's 274 islands are not one landscape but many. The western islands are hilly and steep, formed of granite, the northernmost peaks of the Great Dividing Range that became islands when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The central islands are predominantly c...

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Image: Élisée Reclus | Public domain

Torres Strait: A Culture Between Continents

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Caroline Furness Jayne (1873-1909), Introduction and some photos by Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940), other photos are either "Courtesy of Mr. S. C. Simms" (that is Stephen Chapman Simms (1863-1937) of the Field Colombian Museum, Chicago (now the Field Museum of Natural History)), or by William Henry Furness III (1866-1920), the brother of the principal author., Public domain. The Torres Strait Islands have been inhabited for at least 2,500 years, possibly much longer. The Islander communities are neither Papuan nor Aboriginal Australian but a distinct people related to both, shaped by millennia of maritime trade and cultural exchange. Two indigenous l...

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Image: Caroline Furness Jayne (1873-1909), Introduction and some photos by Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940), other photos are either "Courtesy of Mr. S. C. Simms" (that is Stephen Chapman Simms (1863-1937) of the Field Colombian Museum, Chicago (now the Field Museum of Natural History)), or by William Henry Furness III (1866-1920), the brother of the principal author. | Public domain

Torres Strait: Pearls, Politics, and a Shared Sea

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PeterTHarris, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the 1860s through about 1970, pearling defined the Torres Strait economy. The industry drew experienced divers from across the Pacific and as far as Japan, transforming the islands into a multicultural workplace long before the rest of Australia grappled with immigration. Wh...

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Image: PeterTHarris | CC BY-SA 4.0