Thursday Island

8.00am we all boarded the MV Torres Magic ferry for the 1 hour and 10 minute trip to Thursday Island. We hadn’t booked a tour but once onshore we were approached by Mutty to be our guide at $40pp.

He took us to Customs House, crayfish holding tanks (Annette bought a tail for their dinner), pointed out all the schools, the cemetery which included hundreds of Japanese graves (young men who died while diving for pearl shells - mostly unnamed graves with just a white post marking the graves). Wandered through the Green Hill fort which was constructed between 1891 and 1893 as part of the Australian defence in the lead up to Federation. It was erected in response to the British Russian scare of 1885.

Once off our “bus tour” we had lunch at the Grand Hotel and walked the main road until it was time to catch the return ferry back to Seisia.Read more