Torres Strait Islands

From Freepedia

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of islands, numbering more than 100, which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far-northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They are part of the territory belonging to the State of Queensland, in the Commonwealth of Australia.

Contents

Geography

The islands are distributed across an area of some 48,000 km2. The distance across the Strait from Cape York to New Guinea is approximately 150 km at the narrowest point; the islands lie scattered in-between this range, extending some 200-300 km from furthest east to furthest west.

The Torres Strait itself was formerly a land bridge which connected the present-day Australian contintent with New Guinea (in a single landmass called Sahul or Australia-New Guinea). This land bridge was most recently submerged by rising sea levels at the termination of the last ice age glaciation (approximately 12,000 years ago), forming the Strait which now connects the Arafura and Coral seas. Many of the western Torres Strait Islands are actually the remaining peaks of this land bridge which were not submerged when the ocean levels rose.

The Torres Strait Islands may be grouped into five distinct clusters, which exhibit differences of geology and formation as well as location (see also "List of islands" section, below).

Top Western islands

The islands in this cluster lie very close to the southwestern coastline of New Guinea (the closest is less than 4 km offshore). Saibai (one of the largest of the Torres Strait Islands) and Boigu are low-lying islands which were formed by alluvial deposits of sediments and mud from New Guinean rivers into the Strait accumulating on decayed coral platforms. Vegetation on these islands mainly consists of mangrove swamps, and they are prone to flooding.

The other main island in this group, Dauan (Mt. Cornwallis), is a smaller island with steep hills, composed largely of granite. This island actually represents the northernmost extent of the Great Dividing Range, the extensive series of mountain ranges which runs along almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia. This peak became an island as the ocean levels rose at the end of the last ice age.

Near Western islands

The islands in this cluster lie south of the Strait's mid-way point, and are also largely high granite hills with mounds of basaltic outcrops, formed from old peaks of the now-submerged land bridge. Moa (Banks Island) is the second-largest in the Torres Strait, and Badu (Mulgrave Island) is slightly smaller and fringed with extensive mangrove swamps. Other smaller islands include Mabuiag, Pulu and further to the east Nagir (Mt. Earnest).

Inner islands

These islands lie closest to Cape York Peninsula, and their topography and geological history is very similar. Muralag (Prince of Wales Island) is the largest of the Strait's islands, and forms the centre of this closely-grouped cluster. The much smaller Waiben (Thursday Island) is the region's administrative centre and most heavily populated. Several of these islands have permanent freshwater springs, and some were also mined for gold in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of their proximity to the Australian mainland, they have also been centres of pearling and fishing industries. Ngurapai (Horn Island) holds the region's airport, and as a result is something of an entrepôt with inhabitants drawn from many other communities. Kiriri (Hammond Island) is the other permanently-settled island of this group; Tuined (Posession Island) is noted for Lt. James Cook's landing there in 1770.

Central islands

This cluster is more widely distributed in the middle of Torres Strait, consisting of many small sandy cays surrounded by coral reefs, similar to those found in the nearby Great Barrier Reef. The more northerly islands in this group however, such as Gebar (Two Brothers) and Iama (Yam Island), are high basaltic outcrops, not cays. The low-lying inhabited coral cays, such as Poruma (Coconut Island), Warraber (Sue Island) and Masig (Yorke Island) are mostly less than 2-3 km long, and no wider than 800 m. Several have had problems with saltwater intrusion.

Eastern islands

The islands of this group (principally Mer (Murray Island), Dauar and Waier, with Erub (Darnley Island) and Ugar (Stephen Island) further north) are formed differently from the rest. They are volcanic in origin, the peaks of volcanoes which were formerly active in Pleistocene times. Consequently their hillsides have rich and fertile red volcanic soils, and are thickly vegetated. The eastern-most of these are less than 20 km from the northern extension of the Great Barrier Reef.

Ecology

The islands and their surrounding waters and reefs provide a highly-diverse set of land and marine ecosystems, with nichés for many rare or unique species.

Marine animals of the islands include dugongs (an endangered species of sea mammal mostly found in New Guinean waters), as well as Green, Hawksbill and Flat Back Sea turtles.

Habitation

Torres Strait Islanders, the indigenous peoples of the islands, are Melanesians culturally akin to the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea. They are regarded as being distinct from other Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, and are generally referred to separately.

There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland, Bamaga and Seisia.

According to the 2001 Australian census ABS figures, the population of the Torres Strait Islands was 8089, of whom 6214 were either of Torres Strait Islander or Aboriginal origin.

Administration

An Australian Commonwealth statutory authority called the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) is responsible for governance of the islands. The TSRA has an elected board comprising 20 representatives from the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal communities resident in the Torres Strait region. There is one representative per established local community. These board members are elected under the Queensland Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984 and Division 5 of the ATSIC Act 1989. The TSRA itself falls under the portfolio responsibilities of the Federal Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

The administrative centre of the islands is Thursday Island.

History

It was at Possession Island that Captain James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia in 1770.

Murray Island was the home of Eddie Mabo, whose case in the High Court of Australia established the legal existence of native title, by which the indigenous inhabitants of Australia were recogised as have rights to land which pre-dated European settlement.

List of islands

The Torres Strait Islands are traditionally grouped into 5 regional clusters. The islands in each group include:

Top Western islands (closest to New Guinea)
Near Western islands
Central islands
Eastern islands
Inner islands (Thursday Island group)


External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Torres_Strait_Islands.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links