pearllugger

Queensland Places - Torres Strait - History of Pearling By JOL Admin | 25 June 2015 The first commercial pearling station in the Torres Strait area was established at Warrior Island in 1868, by Captain Banner, who was said to have identified large quantities of pearl shell whilst looking for beach-de-mer. As pearl shell was a more valuable commodity than beche-de-mer, news of the lucrative alternative soon spread. By 1876, more than a hundred boats were working in the industry, and more than a thousand men were employed. The pearl industry has often faced difficulties outside of its control, such as unpredictable price or demand fluctuations or shortages of suitable, skilled labor. For instance, in the ten-year period between 1881 and 1891 prices fell significantly, forcing many skilled operators to leave the industry. Japanese divers and other workers took their place and were to become a mainstay of the industry right through until the beginning of the Second World War. A further dislocation to the industry occurred in 1885 when a large part of the Torres Strait fleet moved to Western Australia to work the rich sources of pearl shell in the vicinity of Broome. A major calamity also struck the industry in 1899 when many luggers and workers were lost when two devastating cyclones hit Princess Charlotte Bay. The industry did recover to some extent in the late 1920s when there was a general boom in demand for a wide range of marine products, including pearls and pearl shells, but this was to be short-lived, with the industry declining again in the post Depression period of the 1930s. The beginning of the Second World War and the war with Japan had a devastating effect on the viability of the industry with this being exacerbated by the post-Second World War development and use of plastics, further dampening the demand for pearl shells. In the 1960s the industry revived due to the successful development of cultured pearls by the Japanese and the establishment of a number of cultured pearl farms at various locations throughout the Torres Strait. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/queensland-places-torres-strait-h...

The Thursday Island group comprising Thursday Island (TI), Horn Island, Prince of Wales, and Hammond Islands is uniquely diverse and multicultural compared to the other Island Clusters because of the colonial and historic influences of the pearling industry and the different cultures and people who have settled on these islands. The Thursday Islands Cluster has distinct cultural characteristics which define them as a region and people. The islands were an important strategic airbase in World War 2 with Horn Island being home to over 5000 troops. Today, with a population of 539, it is the air hub for the outer islands and the Cape. Prince of Wales Island is the largest of the group while TI (only 3km²) is the administrative capital, 30 km off the tip of mainland Australia. Although it lacks its own fresh water supply, the island was selected for its deep harbor, sheltered port, and proximity to major shipping channels. One of 17 inhabited islands in the straits, TI was once a major pearling center, resulting in today's cultural mix of Southeast Asians, Europeans, and Islanders. Hammond Island became the pearling station headquarters for a short time until its relocation to Thursday Island and early in the 20th-century gold was also mined. A cattle industry was set up later to supply the population of Thursday Island. In 1929 the need was seen to establish a Catholic Mission on Hammond Island for the children of the Filipinos and Malays whose forefathers were brought to the Torres Straits as indentured labor. Source: www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/torres-strait-islands-coll...

Between the mid-1880s and World War One, Australian pearling was shaped by the floating station system, a way of working in which schooners of 100 tons or more served as mother ships for fleets of luggers from which full-dress helmet divers worked in deep water. This highly capitalised system offered producers significant advantages, not the least of which was mobility. It connected Australia’s two widely separated original arcs of pearling activity, the Torres Strait and the North West, and exerted a transforming influence on the other mother-of-pearl producing regions of the Indian Ocean. The system proved so efficient it was blamed for exhausting shelling grounds wherever it went and governments moved to outlaw it, although this response was motivated as much by political ideology as by concerns about resource depletion. Source: museum.wa.gov.au/museums/maritime/pearling-schooner-age-t...

The administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands which have been part of Queensland since 1872, “T.I.” as it is usually known, is just over three square km in area and 39km off the tip of Cape York. The strait’s population of 25,000 live on more than 20 islands (around one-tenth of these live on Thursday Island), and is engaged mostly in fishing, prawning and a declining pearling industry. Thursday Island is now identified as one of the last great frontiers in Australia, as it holds some great Australian history. In 1880, Thursday Island acted as the defence centre for Australia and evidence of this still exists in that the cannons still remains in place. Although Thursday Island has lost its former importance as a stopping point for vessels, it’s still a popular pause for passing yachties. History: The island has been populated for thousands of years by the Melanesian Torres Strait Islanders, who named the island Waiben, thought to mean ‘no water or place of no water’, owing to the scarcity of fresh water on the island. It was named Thursday Island on 4th June 1789 by Captain William Bligh on his epic voyage of survival after being cast adrift in a longboat during the mutiny on HMS Bounty. He named it because the day he arrived and went ashore there was a Thursday. In 1877, an administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands was set up on the island by the Queensland Government. A lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1885, attracting workers from around Asia, including Japan, Malaya and India, seeking their fortune. By 1883 over 200 pearling vessels were based on the island. Additionally, many south Pacific Islanders were also imported to work in the industry, many against their will. While the pearling industry has declined in importance, the mix of cultures is evident to this day. The pearling industry centred on the harvesting of pearl shell, which was used to make shirt buttons. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew. The boats used were a very graceful two-masted lugger with, in good times, a stern diver, one midship, and one diver off the bow. The fear of a Russian invasion lead to a fort on Battery Point being built in 1892 to protect the island. During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. As a result, the island was bombed by the Japanese in 1942, which saw the evacuation of civilians from the island. They did not return until after the end of the war. The island was mostly spared from bombing in World War II, due, it was thought, to it being the burial place of many Japanese pearl shell divers. However, neighbouring Horn Island was extensively bombed. It had an airbase there, used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. Following the conclusion of the war, the island tradition of a no footwear policy was reinstated in respect for the ancient spirits believed to reside on the island. In the 1950s the CSIRO attempted to establish a cultured pearl industry and in the 1970s there was an attempt to farm green turtles. The Melanesian background of the Thursday Islanders became an issue in the 1970s when Papua New Guinea sought to include the Torres Strait Islands within its borders. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, however, and after considerable diplomatic discussion all of the Torres Strait, including Thursday Island, remained part of Australia. Source: www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/north-queensland-21/