Thursday Island, Australia Tourism

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Strait Islanders) the population includes Aborigines and Asians. In the 19th C the island was a center of pearl fishing, the mother-of-pearl industry and trepang-gathering. There are regular air services between Cairns and Thursday Island; the airfield is on the neighboring Horn Island. By sea, there are regular cruises from Cairns to Thursday Island and back, and a ferry service from Bamaga at the tip of Cape York, with boats picking up passengers at Pundsand Bay.

There are a number of handsome 19th C buildings - the Quetta Memorial Church (built in 1893 to commemorate the sinking of the Quetta off the island in 1890), the courthouse (1876) and the Grand and Federal Hotels. In the north of the island is a cemetery containing the graves of many pearl fishers and Melanesians.