Thursday Island

A “Wonderful Day” at Thursday Island

By Linda I. Burkett, of Bundaberg, Q.

FROM the spacious white decks of the Taiping to the open deck of a pearling lugger is, practically speaking, a long step downward, but for a party of students from the south who arriv ed at Thursday Island at the end of December, it was a step to a higher branch on the tree of knowledge.

The Taiping, bound from Melbourne to Hong Kong, tied up at the T.I. jetty for over twenty-four hours, thus enab ling these gleaners of knowledge to explore one of the reefs in Torres Straits. Twenty students from univers ities and colleges of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria were accom panied by Professor MacDonald Holmes, D.Sc., F.R.G.S., and Dr. Har vey Sutton.

Through the courtesy of Mr. Sullivan, manager of Messrs. Morey and Co., the local agents for the A. and O., I was able to join the party and place on record further interesting experiences of a visitor to the Island of Pearls, goats and New Guinea boys.

Once aboard the lugger our only dif ficulty was to catch sufficient breeze to drive us to the wonderful sea gardens between Thursday and Tuesday Is lands. However, the launch Weenonah relieved the situation and we soon reached the reef.

Fearless of sharks and other deni zens of the Straits, a Japanese diver, stripped to the waist and, wearing watertight goggles, plucked for us mag

nificent bunches of coral, coloured beds of which we viewed through glasses swung over the side of the dingheys.

Each specimen of coral varied in for mation and colour, the classification of which I shall leave to those who did more than admire their wonderful colours.

The adventurer’s appetite should have been more than satisfied in that two hours’ cruise in the clear green waters of the Straits, for every moment held some unexpected happening. Riding the ocean in a pearling lugger, deep water diving exhibitions by smiling Japanese, coral collecting, swimming off the sandy spit at Tuesday and, last but not least, the discovery of a turtle’s nest—all these composed a first-rate programme.

In the eyes of us landlubbers the reptile’s track in the soft sand was scarcely discernible, but it was unfor tunate for Mr. and Mrs. Turtle that two of our Japanese crew landed with us. Our craft was delayed while about a hundred of the coming turtle family, then resembling ping-pong balls, were removed from the nest, in which the track ended. Unlike the eggs of birds, turtle eggs do not require very careful handling. They have soft, tough shells, and almost bounced on being tossed from their subterranean nests into the molester’s basket. The display of our spoils was accepted as a good reason for delaying the party, as the discov ery of a turtle’s nest was a novelty we would not have cared to forego.

The general verdict was “A Wonder ful Day,” and it mattered little that the luncheon gong had pealed two hours before our return to Thursday Island.