the northern townships on Cape York Peninsula
and on the Torres Strait Islands.
If you spend some time around them you
will see that the appearance is different than
the mainland Aboriginal people. Their culture
is also different and they only have five
different languages.
Early sea explorers, Captain James Cook
arrived in 1770 and sailed along the eastern
coast of Australia and claimed eastern Australia
for England on Possession Island, which is only
about nine miles west of Cape York.
Possession Island may be worth a visit, it is
only three miles long and has a monument to
Captain Cook about taking possession of what
he referred to as New South Wales down to 38
degrees latitude. European explorers were also
circulating in the waters of northern Australia
in the early 1600s and perhaps earlier as they
were already travelling along the archipelago
of Indonesia; it would not have been out of the
question for them to travel a little further south
and land in Australian waters.
Pearling was a big industry in northern
Australia and one of the places where it
f lourished was the Torres Strait Islands off
the tip of Cape York. It brought many different
nationalities to the area, but pearling was
started with indigenous people who would
gather the pearl shell up in the shallow waters.
If you are travelling up this way drop in to
Thursday Island for information about the
pearling history.FACILITIES AVAILABLE
Even though the tip of mainland Australia is very
remote we were able to make a mobile phone call
if we stood on the hill just up from the carpark.
Re-supply is available if you head out to
Horn/Thursday islands. Fuel is available on
either island but is cheaper on Horn Island at
the fuel merchant.
We anchored on the Horn Island side out of
the SE trades that blow at this time of the year
( June). There is a great ferry service running
between the islands and included in the price is
a lift downtown on Thursday Island in the ferry
company’s minibus.
You can stock up at the shops, fill up the gas
bottle and we even got some plumbing bits
at the hardware store. Then it was time for a
reasonably-priced counter meal at the pub.
Should it be needed, medical help is available
at the hospital on Thursday Island.
We anchored on Horn Island in a well-
protected area near the beached old trawler
at S10°35.7407 E142°14.4358. ≈LEFT: Cairns on
the top of the
walkway path.
OPPOSITE PAGE:
TOP: That sign!
BELOW: Looking
west, out toward
Possession Island.15
http://www.mysailing.com.auBruce and partner Deb
have lived aboard Matilda
a Hans Christian Christina for the past
6 years. We are full time cruisers now
traveling through SE Asia waters.BRUCE NICHOLSON