The island has been populated for thousands of years by the
Torres Strait Islanders, though archeological evidence on
Badu, further north in Torres Strait, suggests that the area has been inhabited from before the end of the last Ice Age. The archaeology from Badu, Pulu,
Saibai and
Mer shows that Melanesian occupation started around 2,600 years ago (see
Kalaw Lagaw Ya). In 1848 a hydrographic survey of the area was conducted by Captain
Owen Stanley of the
Royal Navy, the commander of
HMS Rattlesnake. He named this island Friday Island and another island Thursday Island (presumably reflecting the day of the week on which he named them). However, in June 1855 Admiral Sir
Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy (the Admiralty Hydrographer) decided to switch the names around, likely to preserve the east-west naming sequence with the present-day
Friday Island and the nearby Wednesday Island. The town that developed on the island was also called Port Kennedy, but on 1 June 1962 the town was renamed Thursday Island.
Pearl trade A lucrative
pearling industry was founded on the island in 1884, attracting workers from around
Asia, including
Japan,
Malaya and
India, seeking their fortune. The Japanese community was in part indentured divers and boat hands who returned to Japan after a period of service and some longer term residents who were active in boat building and in the ownership of luggers for hire—which was illegal but bypassed by leases through third parties back to other Japanese, a practice called "dummying". Additionally, many south
Pacific Islanders worked in the industry, with some originally imported against their will, in a practice known as
blackbirding. While the pearling industry has declined in importance, the mix of cultures is evident to this day. The pearling industry centred on the harvesting of pearl shell, which was used mainly to make shirt buttons. The local pearl oyster is Golden Lip Oyster,
Pinctada maxima.
Shell trade Trochus shell was also gathered using specialized boats. Most shell was exported as the raw material—to a London-based market. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew. The boats used were very graceful two-masted
luggers. In shallow water free diving was used while in deeper water
diver's dress, or an abbreviated form of it, with a surface air supply was used. In good times there were three divers to a lugger, a stern diver, one midships, and one diver off the bow. A manual air compressor was used. It looked like a yard-wide cube with two large wheels mounted one on each side. For part of the fleet that operated further from Thursday Island, larger vessels, typically
schooners were used as mother ships to the luggers. Shell was usually opened on the mother vessels rather than on the luggers, in order to secure any pearls found. The waters of the Straits are murky and visibility was generally very poor. Even though dive depths were not great, except at the Darnley Deep (near
Darnley or Erub Island), which was 40 fathoms (240 feet), attacks of the bends were common and deaths frequent.
Telegraph, trade, and cyclone The Thursday Island Parish of the
Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns) was established in 1884. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries Thursday Island was a regular stop for vessels trading between the east coast of Australia and
Southeast Asia. A shipping disaster to a vessel in this service occurred in 1890 when struck an uncharted reef in the Strait and sank in five minutes with the loss of over 130 lives. The Anglican Church on Thursday Island built shortly afterwards was named the
Quetta All Souls Memorial Cathedral in memory of the event. Today the church is called
All Souls and St Bartholomew Church.
Joshua Slocum (the first person to sail alone around the world) visited Thursday Island on this voyage in 1897 at the time of
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Slocum's memoir describes the Jubilee celebrations (including a
corroboree) organised by
Government Resident John Douglas.
Cyclone Mahina, which hit
Bathurst Bay, southeast of Thursday Island in 1899, wrecked the pearling fleet sheltering there, with huge losses of vessels and lives.
Twentieth century Local pearling declined steadily up to
World War II, partly through competition from a Japanese-based fleet which did not use local resources or personnel. In the 1950s plastic buttons imitating pearl supplanted much of the demand for shell. The Thursday Island Customs House opened in 1938 at 2 Victoria Parade (). During
World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and
United States forces. January 1942 saw the evacuation of civilians from the island. This industry still exists around the island today. In the 1970s, there was also an attempt to farm green turtles. From 1900 to 1996 the
Quetta Memorial Church on the island was the cathedral church of the large
Diocese of Carpentaria which included North Queensland, the Islands of the Torres Strait and, to 1968, the
Northern Territory. == Demographics ==