The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway

separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They
span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi).
The Islands have been inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders for 70,000
years.[2] Lieutenant James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia
at Possession Island in 1770, but British administrative control only began in the Torres Strait Islands in
1862. The islands are now mostly part of Queensland, a constituent State of the Commonwealth of
Australia, but are administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority, a statutory authority of
the Australian federal government. A few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to
the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, most importantly Daru Island with the provincial capital, Daru.
Only 14 of the islands are inhabited. The Torres Strait Islands' population was recorded at 4,514 in
the 2016 Australian census, with 91.8% of these identifying as Indigenous Torres Strait Island peoples.
Although counted as Indigenous Australians, Torres Strait Islander peoples, being
predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically, culturally and linguistically different from Aboriginal Australians.

The Indigenous inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands are the Torres Strait Islanders, an
ethnically Melanesian people who also inhabited the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula. They are
ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Aboriginal people of Australia.[citation needed]
There was continuous inter-island warfare. In particular, the Murray (Mer) islanders were known as the
fiercest raiders and head-hunters. They waged constant warfare against the Darnley islanders, their
nearest neighbours.[3]
The Spanish navigator Luís Vaez de Torres explored Torres Strait in 1606. Torres had joined the
expedition of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, which sailed west from Peru across the Pacific Ocean in
search of Terra Australis.

Captain James Cook first claimed British sovereignty in 1770 over the eastern part of Australia
at Possession Island.[citation needed]
British administrative control did not begin until 1862 in the Torres Strait Islands, marked by the
appointment of John Jardine, police magistrate at Rockhampton, as Government Resident in the Torres
Straits. He originally established a small settlement on Albany Island, but on 1 August 1864 he settled at
Somerset Island.[3] Although the Torres Strait Islanders had long dived for pearl shells themselves, the
international industry of pearl and trochus shells, for using the mother of pearl as decoration, started in
earnest in the 1860s. By the 1890s, the islands were supplying more than 50 percent of the world's pearl
shell.[4][5]
The London Missionary Society (LMS) mission, led by Rev. Samuel Macfarlane, arrived on Erub (Darnley
Island) on 1 July 1871. After the Anglican Church took over their mission in the 20th century, they referred
to the events as "The Coming of the Light", and established an annual celebration on 1 July.[6]
In 1872 the boundary of Queensland was extended to include Thursday Island and other islands in Torres
Strait within 60 miles of the Queensland coast.[3]
In June 1875 a measles epidemic killed about 25% of the population, with some islands suffering losses of
up to 80%, as the islanders had no natural immunity to European diseases.[7]
In 1879 Queensland annexed the other Torres Strait Islands. They were classified as part of the
British colony of Queensland and, after 1901, of the Australian state of Queensland. But some of them lie
just off the coast of New Guinea.
In 1885 John Douglas was appointed as Government Resident Magistrate residing on Thursday Island. He
made periodic tours of all the islands and was known to all the natives. He established the system under
which the hereditary native chief of each island was installed as chief magistrate, supporting the local
traditional system. He also established Native Police, but the only island on which the Native Police were
armed was Saibai. There they were provided with Snider carbines to repel the attacks of the Marind-
anim (formerly known as Tugeri), the headhunters who raided the islands from their territory on the New
Guinea coast.[3]
In 1898–1899 the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition led by Alfred Cort Haddon visited the Torres
Strait Islands. Among its members was W. H. R. Rivers, who later gained notability for his work in
psychology and treating officers in the Great War.[8] They collected and took about 2000 cultural artefacts,
ostensibly to save them from destruction by missionaries. But all of the artefacts collected by Samuel
Macfarlane were sold in London, mostly to European museums.[9]

20th century to present

In 1904 the peoples of the Torres Strait Islands were made subject to the Aboriginals Protection and
Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897,[10] which gave draconian powers to the Queensland government
in placing legal restrictions on natives and on their land use.[9]
In 1899 John Douglas had initiated a process of electing island councils, intended to loosen the power of
missionaries in the islands. They had become powerful by default because the government did not have
resources to administer the territory. In the Western islands, where the traditional lifestyle was semi-
nomadic, the council system continued to thrive.[9]
During World War II, many Torres Strait Islander people served in the Torres Strait Light Infantry
Battalion of the Australian Army.[citation needed]
From 1960 to 1973 Margaret Lawrie captured some of the Torres Strait Islander people's culture by
recording their recounting of local myths and legends. Her anthropological work, stored at the State Library
of Queensland, has recently been recognised and registered with the Australian UNESCO Memory of the
World Programme.[9]
The proximity of the islands to Papua New Guinea became an issue when the territory started moving to
gain independence from Australia, which it gained in 1975. The Papua New Guinea government objected
to the position of the border close to the New Guinean mainland, and the subsequent complete control that
Australia exercised over the waters of the strait. The Torres Strait Islanders opposed being separated from
Australia and insisted on no change to the border.[11] The Australian Federal government wished to cede
the northern islands to appease Papua New Guinea, but were opposed by the Queensland government
and Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.[12]
An agreement was struck in 1978 whereby the islands and their inhabitants remained Australian, but
the maritime boundary between Australia and Papua New Guinea was defined as running through the
centre of the strait. In practice the two countries co-operate closely in the management of the strait's
resources.[13]
In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Torres Strait Islander people from Mer (Murray Island) started legal
proceedings to establish their traditional land ownership. Because Mabo was the first-named plaintiff, it
became known as the Mabo Case. In 1992, after ten years of hearings before the Queensland Supreme
Court and the High Court of Australia, the latter court found that the Mer people had owned their land prior
to annexation by Queensland.[14] This ruling overturned the long-established legal doctrine of terra
nullius ("no-one's land"), which held that native title over Crown land in Australia had been extinguished at
the time of annexation. The ruling thus has had far-reaching significance for the land claims of both Torres
Strait Islanders and Australian Aboriginal people. Its effects are still being felt in the 21st century, as
indigenous communities establish claims to their traditional lands under the Native Title Act of 1993.

Governance
On 1 July 1994, the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was created. In March 2008, fifteen Torres
Strait Islander Councils were amalgamated into a single body to form a Torres Strait Island Regional
Council, or Torres Strait Island Region, created by the Queensland Government in the interest of financial
viability, and accountability and transparency of local governments throughout the State.[9] It is
administered from Thursday Island, but Thursday, Horn Island, Prince of Wales Island and many others
are under the Shire of Torres