Past and Present of Thursday Island and Torres Straits
By the HONOURABLE JOHN DOUGLAS, C.M.G.,
GOVERNMENT RESIDENT, THURSDAY ISLAND.
THE OUTRIDGE PRINTING CO.,
PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, QUEEN STREET, BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, 1900 (From an address given on Thursday Island on 26 August 1899)
Preface
Shortly before Referendum day—the 2nd of September—I was asked by the Federation League to deliver an address to the people of Thursday Island on its history, with special reference to the great topic of the day. This I undertook to do, and I was subsequently requested by a good many residents on the Island to have it printed for purposes of reference.
Mr. Corran, of the “Torres Straits Pilot,” has kindly placed at my disposal the report of the proceedings which appeared in his paper, and this is now reproduced nearly in its original form.
I have added a few statements, chiefly in explanation of a few very excellent photographs taken by Mr. Claude Falconer when on a cruise in the “White Star” among the islands of Torres Straits.
JOHN DOUGLAS.
Thursday Island,
30th September, 1899.
In the beginning God created Thursday Island. There are some
persons possibly who might hesitate to confirm that statement, and who might
prefer to say that Thursday Island grew unconsciously, like Topsy, and that one
fine morning it arose above the sea level, growing grass and producing living
creatures in that mysterious order of creation of which as yet we know very
little. I am not going to dispute about the origin of Thursday Island—how it
came to exist, and how in the far-off ages it began to bask under the puissant
forces of the great Creative Power. Suffice it to say that our little Island is
probably as old as the mightiest monarchs of the Andes and the Himalayas. Its
foundations are laid in the bed rock of the oldest geological formations. Here
and in this very neighbourhood was enacted the great drama of man’s earliest
existence. There are no historical landmarks, I regret to say, of that most
interesting period. There are no precious memorials of those times which can be
said to throw much light on the stone age as it still exists in New Guinea. I
cannot tell you when men first came to look on these shores. I cannot tell you
with any approach to accuracy where our first Garden of Eden was situated,
whether on this Island, or on Hammond Island, or on Moa or Badu. Of this you
may be certain, on no less an authority than my own, that there was once, not
far from us, a Garden of Eden of our own. We have indeed just as good a right
to a Garden of Eden on these Australian shores as the dwellers in Mesopotamia.
Adam and Eve were here in all their primitive simplicity. Cain of Torres
Straits killed Abel just in the same way, and the same savage destiny was
worked out through endless ages. So that after all, Thursday Island is probably
as old as the oldest island of the ocean, and if there is honour in old age,
and in an ancient origin, Thursday Island has a perfect right to any
distinction which may be founded on such associations. In due course, also,
there came a time when the Sons of God, as our ancient annals have it, took to
themselves the daughters of men. That stupendous alliance, which I do not
pretend wholly to comprehend, no doubt bore fruit here, as it did elsewhere,
and it is quite possible that his Caucasian Majesty of the present— day may
claim to trace his ancestry to such an origin. However that may be, I will
claim this for Thursday Island, that it is as old as Nineveh or Persepolis, as
old as Rome or Carthage, and that during all that stormy time when empires rose
and fell it was held in reserve in quiescent insignificance, awaiting the
advent of that peculiar people whom I have referred to, and who may for our
present purpose be designated as the Sons of God. Well then, having thus
shadowed forth the distant past, the period of gestation when this Thursday
Island and this Torres Straits of ours was being formed in the fruitful womb of
time, let me now glance briefly at its history in later times—in the living
present which we know of and which we may regard as historical as compared with
those mystic ages which the mighty forces of Nature devoted to the creative
period.
The first recorded fact, then, which I connect with the
present is the voyage of Torres through Torres Straits. That was in August,
1606. In the same year came the Dutch to Duyphen Point, which is south of the
Batavia River. Torres was unable to make his way round to the north of New
Guinea, being baffled by contrary winds, so he coasted along the southern
shores of New Guinea, annexing everything in the name of the King of Spain, and
kidnapping some twenty natives as curiosities for his master. He says that he
sailed through the Straits in the 11th parallel of south latitude, and at the
same time says that he got into great difficulties among the reefs which
extend, according to his computations, up to the fifth parallel. How he arrived
at this conclusion is difficult to understand. He got through, however, and
reached Manila that same year.
You will all agree with me I think when I say that Luis Vaez
de Torres must have been a plucky sailor and a dexterous navigator to
accomplish such a feat with the imperfect ships and appliances which then
prevailed. It is curious to know, also, as many of you I daresay do not know,
that the account of his voyage did not transpire until more than 150 years
after, when a copy of it was discovered in an official pigeon-hole at Manila,
when that Spanish colony was occupied by the British in the early years of George
the Third’s reign.
Anyway, Torres managed to thread his way through the Straits
in August, 1606. That was in the reign of James the First of England and Sixth
of Scotland, but whether he did so through Endeavour Straits, or by what we
know as the Napoleon Pass, I cannot tell you. He probably sighted the Prince of
Wales group. Make a note then of your first historical landmark. Luis Vaez de
Torres passed through Torres Straits in August, 1606. That was about the time
of the Gunpowder Plot.
Then, after a long interval of more than 160 years came
Cook, our illustrious voyager. Cook did not know of the discovery made by
Torres, at any rate there is no hint of such knowledge in his travels, for
Torres’ discovery, as I have told you, lay perdu at Manila. Well, Cook
unfurled our flag on Possession Island in 1770, sailing joyfully out of the
reefs through Endeavour Straits, Landmark No. 2. Most memorable! That was about
the time when the Act was passed which levied a duty on tea imported into America.
Most memorable also! For it was that Act which lost us our American colonies of
that time—lost, do I say, though to their great gain and to ours also, I verily
believe, for they were then enabled to work out their destiny on a grander
scale; and to us of the old parent stem there came a capacity to branch out
into a wider space in India and in Canada, and above all in this new continent
of Australia.
It was some compensation indeed for the tea duty, that Cook
should at that time have accomplished the exploration of the eastern coast of
New South Wales, as he called it, planting his staff on Possession Island, and
thus opening out a vast area of amplification for our Anglo-Saxon race.
Remember once more that Landmark in your history, 1770—most memorable!—not only
for us, but for the world itself! Thus the spirit of Life and Light began to
move on the face of the waters, and a new birth began—the babe leaped, as it
were, in its mother’s womb. (Applause.)
Let me here dilate a little on this plan which you see
before you. It is an enlargement of Captain Cook’s chart which has most kindly
been made for me by Captain Coxen, our artillery commandant. It is wonderfully
accurate you will observe with the exception of some minor details which have
been filled in by subsequent observations. Here Cook planted his staff on
Possession Island in 1770. It is a noteworthy incident in the history of
Australia, and it may be hoped that it will some day be monumentally perpetuated
in some permanent fashion. In Sydney, you know, there is a fine statue to Cook
in one of their public places. Why should not we, at this extremity of
Australia, where he accomplished this the greatest of his achievements, why
should not we too have some lasting memorial indicating on these shores the act
of our glorious discoverer.
Twenty years after came H.M.S. Pandora sailing from Tahiti,
and she left her bones in Torres Straits. In the following year Bligh and
Portlock passed through. That was in 1792. Then came Bampton and Alt, the
adventurous traders and explorers of the Papuan Gulf; and after them nothing,
or nothing historical so far as I know for more than fifty years; when
Blackwood of the Fly and Owen Stanley of the Rattlesnake, as recorded by Jukes
and McGillivray, began to make history by their surveys and observations.
It was time that they did, for it was then beginning to be
perceived, as their instructions testify, that there must soon be steam
communication between Sydney and Singapore, and the way must be prepared by
further explorations and surveys through Torres Straits. Blackwood accordingly
surveyed the Raine Island entrance, and erected his tower there. Owen Stanley
improved on that and surveyed Bligh’s entrance, exploring at the same time the
waters and the Islands in the vicinity of the Warrior Reef. Thus we reach
another landmark in our history—the voyages of the Fly and the Rattlesnake,
1844–1850.
Alas, dear Thursday Islanders, I have looked in vain in your
School of Arts Library, consisting of two thousand volumes, mostly novels—in
vain have I looked for the voyages of the Fly and the Rattlesnake. I can find
no trace of Jukes or McGillivray. You have an excellent edition of Cook’s
voyages, from which I have taken the chart which you see; but you have no Jukes
and no McGillivray, and as far as I can find you have no Bible. I fear me much
that the members of the School of Arts have not yet found salvation. Find
salvation by all means. Buy a good edition of the Revised Version, and buy also
the voyages of the Fly and the Rattlesnake. They are the very title-deeds of
your inheritance.
Once more let us go over these landmarks.
Landmark No. 1.—Creation of Thursday Island—unrecorded—omne
ignotum pro magnifico, probably the same as the sun and the moon and the
stars.
Landmark No. 2.—Visit of the Sons of God to the daughters of
men, also beyond historical computation, an insoluble problem.
Landmark No. 3.—Luis Vaez de Torres, A.D. 1606.
Landmark No. 4.—Captain Cook at Possession Island, A.D.
1770.
Landmark No. 5.—Voyages of the Fly and the Rattlesnake,
1844–1850.
Now we are approaching what may be called modern times.
Torres Straits had been explored. Occasionally ships passed through it. I think
I see before me to-night an ancient mariner, Captain Dark, who in the early
days of his seafaring, between 1840-50, passed several times through Torres
Straits. But as yet little was known of the great northern territory of Terra
Australis. Fitful attempts had been made to establish a settlement at Port
Essington, and had failed. It then came to be perceived that, if there was to
be a harbour of refuge in Northern Australia, it would be somewhere in the
vicinity of Cape York, or York Cape, as Cook has it, and not at Port Essington.
Thus the exploration of the York Cape Peninsula became a necessity. So an
expedition was organised in Sydney, and E. B. Kennedy was placed in command of
it. They left Sydney on the 26th of April, 1848, in the barque Tam O’Shanter
under the convoy of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, thirteen all told, one of them being a
namesake of my own. They landed at Rockingham Bay on the 23rd of May. Why so
far south it is hard to tell. They were sadly embarrassed by the difficulties
of the country in those parts, and were quite exhausted by their wanderings
before ever they reached the Peninsula. I suppose that you all know the
disastrous results of that expedition. Poor Kennedy was killed by the blacks on
the Escape River, within sight of Albany Island, whither a vessel had been sent
to meet him. His faithful companion Jackey Jackey, an Australian aboriginal,
saw him die, and afterwards reached Albany to tell the tale. Kennedy had left
eight men at a depot he formed at Weymouth Bay. Weymouth Bay is to the south of
Piper Island Light. Of those eight men two only survived, Carron and Goddard.
Carron was the botanist of the expedition, and from him we know everything that
is known about the expedition up to the time when Kennedy left them to make a
dash for Albany. They were rescued by Captain Dobson and Dr. Vallack in the
Ariel on the 30th of December, 1848, and were taken back to Sydney. A few
months after, in May of the following year, T. Beckford Simpson, the master of
the brig Freak, visited Weymouth Bay and brought away the bodies, or rather the
bones, of Niblett and Ward. He buried them on the highest point of Albany
Island. Captain Owen Stanley afterwards erected a tombstone, as we are told,
over the grave. It was in reality a stout wooden tablet, which was afterwards
destroyed by one of the fires which every year sweep over Albany Island and
burn up all the long grass which prevails. The tablet was renewed by Mr. John
Jardine in 1865, and again by Mr. Frank Jardine. This last tablet has nearly
shared the fate of its predecessors. I visited Albany Island the other day for
the purpose of ascertaining its condition, and finding that it was fast
perishing I brought it in with me. Here it is, you see. I hope that this time
it may be renewed in some permanent form, so as to resist the effects of fire
or of time, and that it may remain to remind us and those who come after us of
Kennedy and his companion. They were brave men. They fell in no inglorious
battle with the unknown, and ought to be remembered as the first of our
explorers. I can well remember when I first came to this country in 1851 how
the fate of Kennedy and his companions was being talked about. Silence,
however, once more brooded over the Peninsula and the waters of Torres Straits
for a good many years after Kennedy passed out of our sight. It was not until
after Queensland came to the front that anything more was done to let in the
light. The first thing done was to establish a Port of Refuge, as it was
called, at Somerset. Ships were beginning carefully to puzzle out a track
through the Straits. Men who were not altogether absorbed by the glamour of our
gold discoveries began to study the charts. They came to the conclusion that
Albany Island commanded a fine position and that someday or other, and
somewhere in that neighbourhood, there must be an Australian Singapore. Had not
the hydrographer in the Admiralty instructions to Captain Owen Stanley
foreshadowed steam communication through the Straits? Sir George Bowen, our
first Governor, was keenly alive to the situation. He came up to Albany in
H.M.S. Pioneer in 1861. In 1862 Mr. John Jardine was sent up from Brisbane to
form a settlement. At that time Captain Edwards of the Blue Bell schooner had a
bêche-de-mer station at Frederick Point, the curing house and store being built
of rough stones. Then followed wooden houses, constructed at Brisbane and
erected on the mainland at Somerset, as it was beginning to be called. Shortly
after came H.M.S. Salamander from England, with a company of Marines. Her
commander was Lieut. Pascoe, and the doctor of the vessel was Dr. Haran. Dr.
Haran wrote a paper on the meteorology of Torres Straits, which, if I mistake
not, was published in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. The
era, then, of the foundation of Somerset, of John Jardine, and of the
Salamander was 1863. Everybody down south was talking of Somerset, and what a
great place it was going to be—the Singapore of Australia—forgetting that
geographical position alone, without trade and peaceful competition, will never
make a Singapore either here or elsewhere.
However, the merchants of Brisbane and Sydney made up their
minds that Somerset must go ahead, and so a good many thousands were raked into
the Treasury at Brisbane for the allotments which were then sold right down to
Fly Point and the City of the Anthills. Still there was not much real growth.
There were barracks for the Marines, whose area of occupation was limited
enough. There was a schoolmaster too, who was supposed to be a native
instructor, but the natives never came to be instructed, and indeed kept such
careful watch and ward over the redcoats that their expeditions into the
interior were limited to about half-a-mile from the barracks. But about this
time there were other explorers afoot, whose explorations were not quite so limited.
The Messrs. Jardine—Frank and Alick—had left Rockhampton in May, 1864, with a
mob of cattle, and they arrived at Somerset on the 17th of March, 1865. It was
a wonderfully daring drive through country which over a great part of the
distance was absolutely unoccupied and had not been traversed, except by
Kennedy with the disastrous results you have heard of. Well, the arrival of the
Jardines at Somerset with their mob of cattle gave it a forward impulse.
Henceforward there was an overland track, though it was not much followed.
Pearlshellers also began to frequent Albany Pass. Pearlshell was then worth
£250 a ton in Sydney, and there were pearls besides, so that there seemed to be
some hope for Somerset.
Moreover, the people in Brisbane began to think that if ever
there was to be steam communication through Torres Straits it was time to stir
about it. So it was decided to send a sort of diplomatic mission to Batavia to
see if the Dutch would join us in the enterprise. Captain Simpson, a retired
naval commander, was fixed upon as a man who would suitably represent us. He
bought a new uniform, I remember, so that he might appear with sufficient
importance before the Governor-General of Netherlands India. Captain Simpson
attained the object we had in view. The Dutch joined us in subsidising a
service for a few experimental trips. The Souchays was chartered under Captain
Blick, and afterwards the Hero. It fell to my lot to sign the first
charter for a steamer service through Torres Straits, for I then happened to be
Postmaster-General. The Dutch also sent their representatives to Brisbane in
the persons of Mr. Van Delden and Mr. Frazer, but it was found, after
experience, that the policy of the Hollanders was not in the direction of free
exchanges, and the next contract was carried out by Messrs. M’Taggart, Tidman
and Co., of Singapore. After them came the Eastern and Australian Coy., and
then the British India Coy.
From 1866 to 1877 Somerset grew a little, though slowly.
There was a store and a post office, and there were some pearl shelling
stations on Albany Island, but the anchorage in Albany Passage was regarded as
very troublesome and even dangerous for large mail steamers—with the tide
sweeping through it as it does they had often to hold on by both anchors. At
that time, also, the maritime boundary of Queensland was extended so as to
include all the islands between the coast and the Barrier Reef. I remember well
how our old friend Douglas Pitt was quoted to me at the time as an instance of
how there were some of our people who had got beyond the jurisdiction, and were
living on the islands without the benefit of judge or jury. Messrs. McFarlane
and Murray also had come to Somerset and had gone to Murray Island to establish
their mission there. That was in 1871. Everything, therefore, was prepared for
another step forward, and thus it fell to me once more to mark another era in
our history by the annexation of the islands and the transfer of the settlement
from Somerset to Thursday Island. The annexation was made, and the transfer was
effected in 1877. I have often thought, since I have become better acquainted
with the locality, that a good deal was lost by us when we left Somerset and
the mainland. We abandoned with it the chance of occupying some twenty or
thirty thousand acres of fine rich scrub land near Somerset, as good as any in
North Queensland, and we abandoned also the chance of a railway which might
have been pushed through the Peninsula and made our starting point for the
East, for India, China, and even the Old Country. Who then thought that
emigrants could be brought through the Red Sea! Good anchorage also could have
been found in one of the bays between Somerset and Cape York. But the die was
cast. Thursday Island was chosen as the future harbour of refuge, and Mr.
Chester moved over to occupy the present Residency in 1877.
During the interval between 1866 and 1877 there had been a
succession of Resident Magistrates at Somerset. Captain Simpson first, who
succeeded John Jardine, then Frank Jardine, and after him Ilin, and finally
Chester, who held sway here until 1885, when I entered on office. It never
dawned upon me in 1877, when I first visited Thursday Island, and when I chose
the site of the present School and Post Office reserves—it certainly never
occurred to me then, that I should be privileged in my latter years to take an
active share in the administration of your affairs and in the islands of the
Straits.
They have been years of very great interest to me, and not
altogether unprofitable, I hope, to the inhabitants of this little dependency
of a dependency. We have grown slowly and surely. We are now known all over the
world as the northern sentinel island of Australia, and the centre of a
thriving local industry. You can hardly expect me, I think, to dwell on the
present occasion on the history of the years from 1877 to the present time. I
may revert to them at some future time, and tell you about the establishment of
your local Government, the annexation of New Guinea, the visit of the Auxiliary
Squadron, the commencement of your fortifications, and the issue of the great
controversy between the believers in the six-inch shell limit or the five-inch.
Let us hasten on to the culminating point of our modern history now before us,
that question which has to be decided next week on the 2nd of September, 1899.
What say you? Are you for union or against it? Are we to be
one people from Cape Leeuwin to Cape York? Is this great island continent of
Australia to be one country? It is already one by the indissoluble laws of
nature—shall I not rather say by the laws of the Great Creator, the majestic
Ruler of Events in the procession of human affairs? It is surrounded by the
sea. It stretches from the tropics to the temperate zone. Is this great country
of ours which during the last century we have won from primitive barbarism, is
it to be made still more one by the closest possible political, economical, and
racial relationship? Are we now, henceforth and for ever to enter upon our
inheritance during the reign of her Majesty the Queen in the Victorian era?
Shall we accept this proffered priceless gift, or shall we reject it? That is
what you will be asked to say on the 2nd of September, and I cannot doubt what
your answer will be. I dare say you remember those stirring words of Robert
Burns—
“Then let us pray, that come it may,
As come it shall for a’ that,
When man and man, o’er all the earth,
Shall brothers be and a’ that.”
Well, that is a big hope, a hope long deferred, and not yet
within sight. But we can at least do something towards its fulfilment. We can
make Australians brothers. We can join hands across our artificial boundaries
and say that henceforth we are one people. We can lay the foundation of a great
Australian nation, and surely that is something worth doing.
What is there to divide us? We are of one race, we speak one
language, we own allegiance to one Sovereign, we have the same laws and
institutions, the same literature, the same traditions, and the same hopes. Why
then should there be six separate communities, each with its own customs
barriers, its own fiscal system, its own defence, and its own machinery for
dealing with matters which concern us all? Surely the time has come when we
should unite for those great purposes which are common to the whole Australian
people.
There are, no doubt, objections to the Bill. No human
instrument is perfect, and this Constitution is the work of men. But we have to
consider whether the advantages of union do not outweigh the objections which
may be urged against particular provisions. We have to remember that if we
reject this opportunity we do not know when another may occur. Years may pass
before the colonies can again be brought into agreement. The present Bill has
been framed after prolonged discussion and after concessions on all sides. It
represents the best agreement which the representatives of the several colonies
have been able to devise.
To us in Northern Queensland Federation has a peculiar
importance. We are far removed from the great centres of population. We stand
here at the northern gateway of Australia. Our interests are not always
identical with those of the southern portions of Queensland, and there are
questions affecting the north which must ultimately be dealt with on an
Australian rather than merely a provincial basis. Defence is one of these. The
protection of these Straits and of this northern coast concerns not Queensland
alone but the whole continent.
Thursday Island occupies a position of great strategic
importance. Every vessel passing through Torres Straits comes within reach of
us, and in time of war the possession and defence of this position might become
a matter of national importance. It is unreasonable that Queensland alone
should bear responsibilities which belong properly to Australia. Under
Federation there will be one defence system, one military organisation, and one
Australian authority responsible for the protection of our shores.
There is another matter of even greater importance to us. I
refer to the population of these northern regions and to the labour employed in
our industries. We have here Europeans, Japanese, Malays, Manilamen, South Sea
Islanders, and natives of the Torres Straits, all brought together by the
pearl-shelling and other industries. The questions arising from this mixed
population cannot permanently be dealt with as though Thursday Island were
isolated from the rest of Australia. They form part of the larger Australian
problem.
I do not propose to enter now into all the arguments which
have been advanced upon these subjects. My purpose to-night has been rather to
remind you how Thursday Island has grown from an almost unknown spot into a
settlement occupying an important position in the commerce and defence of
Australia. I have tried to show you something of the long succession of events
which has brought us to our present position—from Torres and Cook, through the
explorers and navigators who followed them, to the establishment of Somerset
and finally of Thursday Island.
We have reached another landmark. On Saturday next you will
be asked to decide whether Queensland shall enter the Australian Commonwealth.
It is a decision which will affect not merely ourselves but those who come
after us. We are making history just as surely as Torres made history when he
sailed through these waters, or Cook when he raised the British flag on
Possession Island.
I trust that Thursday Island will not be behind the rest of
Queensland in recognising the importance of the occasion. Whatever differences
of opinion may exist as to details, I hope that we shall remember the larger
question—the union of the Australian people and the creation of a Commonwealth
worthy of this great continent and of the race which has made its home here.
I thank you for the patience with which you have listened to
me.
The view of Thursday Island is taken from above the first gun emplacement on the Military road, and gives a very fair idea of the town at the present time.
The settlement dates from 1877, when the Government Buildings were erected and Petty Sessions were first held. Shortly after, and early in 1878, Somerset was abandoned, the buildings being sold to Mr. Jardine. The native name of Thursday Island is Wai ben, and its area is 816 acres. Its present population is 1515, of whom 574 are European. There are 2132 men of various nationalities employed in boats and shipped on articles. The number of Japanese so employed in 1898 was 790. Early in March last a number of boats and upwards of 300 lives were lost in a cyclone on the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula.
The Murray Island people are very proud of their Court House. It is built of coral lime concrete, and is a most substantial and creditable structure, constructed by themselves under the direction of Mr. Bruce. The Queensland Government contributed the iron for the roof, but everything else must be credited to the natives. There are verandahs on three sides, and the material for the verandah on the fourth side has been obtained, though as yet, as is seen in the photograph, it has not been added.
The Mamoose, or head man, known familiarly as “Harry,” dispenses justice, and in doing so is assisted by a council of advisers, who are elected by the heads of family.
There are four policemen who maintain order if necessary, and who act on instructions from the Mamoose. They wear a uniform, which is supplied them by the Queensland Government, and they are quite conscious of the responsibilities of office. They receive a small honorarium of £1 a year as a sort of retaining fee for their services.
The picture here given shows the Murray Island school children who are a very bright and orderly lot, quite equal in intelligence, according to my estimate, to the ordinary run of white children. Mr. John Bruce is their teacher, and he has had them under his tuition for fully five years. He is paid by the Queensland Government, and is the only white man at present permanently residing on Murray Island. The population of Murray Island, according to our census and population registers, which are regularly kept by Mr. Bruce, numbers 481, and I am happy to say that of late years the population has slightly increased. The excess of births over deaths since 1893 stands at 39.
Murray Island may be said to be “self-contained.” There are very few foreigners, and South Sea Islanders are kept at arm’s length, not being encouraged either to settle on the island or to intermarry with the women.
