Tag: Torres Strait Islands

Thursday Island and Pajinka -The Tip

(Click on images to enlarge)

So here we were – we’d made it to the Tip of Cape York, well ALMOST!

Camping at Loyalty Beach, or anywhere this far north, brings different weather conditions than we are used to. Being tropical, our first couple of days were overcast and very, humid with showers, but that didn’t take away from our enjoyment of the place. Being right on the beach, we had lovely views across the turquoise waters of Torres Strait to the closest of the Torres Strait Islands, and along the coast with palm-fringed beaches. Yes, it is somewhat of a paradise!

The locals are so friendly, always ready with a wide grin. Whilst sitting outside enjoying the views, we were greeted by a young man who pulled up in his ute and offered to “clean up” our site for us, and then proceeded to rake up the masses of dead leaves and piles of horse poo that littered our site. (There are a number of horses that roam freely around the whole area, including both caravan parks.) After about 10 minutes, he announced he had to finish up for the day, and would come back tomorrow to finish the job, so off he went. Surprisingly, he was back the next morning, bright and early and raked up about half of what he’d piled up the day before, but from that point on, each time he drove past our site – and there were many! – he would toot and give a big wave and a wide smile like we were his best mates!

We took a walk along the beach from Loyalty Beach to Seisia, to explore what the town had to offer. Being just a small community, there is not much more than the servo, a café/take-away, a Food Store and the caravan park. The store is reasonably well stocked, considering its distance from suppliers, and we learned that most stuff comes in by ship from Weipa. But our main interest was in finding the wharf area, so we’d know where to head in a few days’ time when we were heading over to Thursday Island. The wharf itself is only short, but stands in relatively deep water, and there were a number of locals using handlines to catch some of the hundreds of small fish that hung around the pylons.

Wanting to be closer to the wharf for our Thursday Island trip, we moved from Loyalty Beah and into the Holiday Park at Seisia, where we were also able to leave Roxy on site for half price while we were away. From our site here, we spied a couple of sizeable estuarine crocodiles lazing in the sun on the beach of Red Island, a short distance offshore opposite the wharf. First ones for this trip.

We took a drive about 7 km south of Seisia, down to Bamaga, the larger of the two towns up here, where just out of town is the airport and a couple of WW2 plane crash sites and fuel dumps. The planes, a DC3 and a Beaufort Bomber are both in expectedly poor condition after crashing over 75 years ago, but the real eye-opener for me was the number of rusty 44-gallon drums strewn all over the place in the surrounding bush – literally thousands of them!

Gary had read somewhere that the local fishing club was open on the Friday night for drinks and dinner and to watch the NRL Broncos vs Cowboys on a big screen, so we decided to go down and join them in what turned out to be a rather pleasant evening with quite a surprising number of customers enjoying the tasty fish and chips, the game and the company on a balmy evening, with the added bonus of a beautiful sunset over Red Island.

After those few days exploring this part of the Cape, we packed a green supermarket bag each and took the ferry about 40km across to Thursday Island. With an area of only about 3.5 km2 and a population of about 3000, it is the capital of the Torres Strait Islands and almost as far north as you can go and still be in Australia. For the next five days we explored pretty much every corner of the island; we reckon we walked every single street and pathway there is on that island and for such a small place, it has plenty of hills to keep your fitness up!! After our first night spent in the motel, we moved up to the second highest house on the island, a beautiful B&B which was our home for the next four nights.

On the highest point of the western end of the Island, not far from our B&B, sits Green Hill Fort, built between 1891-1893 and jointly funded by the Colonies (states) at the time, with Britain supplying the armament. Built in response to the “Russian scare” – a confrontation between Britain and Russia – and as a defence point for the whole of the country, there was never a shot fired in conflict and it has served no military purpose since WW2. After serving as a weather station for the BOM between 1954 and 1993, it has since been restored and is now a Heritage Listed Museum. Apart from its museum, which was closed when we were there, it’s a great place to get views over most of Thursday Island and its neighbouring islands, and possibly to the mainland on a clear day, and is also a popular spot for locals and visitors alike to head with some nibbles and drinks to watch the sun setting over the neighbouring islands.

Thursday Island had a lucrative pearling industry founded in the 1880s, which attracted workers from Japan Malaya and India. Although the industry is virtually non-existent since the 1960s, the Heritage Listed Historic cemetery with its incorporated Japanese Cemetery being the final resting place of between 600 and700 Japanese pearl divers and their families, is evidence of how big the industry was.

Access to Thursday Island is by ferry from the mainland after the thousand-kilometre trip up the Cape, or alternatively you can fly from Cairns to Horn Island next door and ferry across from there. Horn Island is larger than Thursday, but with a smaller population, most of which is based at Wasaga Village at the western end of the island and many of whom commute by ferry across to Thursday Island for work or school. Being a larger island, Horn Island is the site of the main water supply dam from which water is piped across to Thursday Island and is also home to the waste management landfill for TI. Horn’s history includes gold mining and pearling industry, and it was home to a major allied airbase, which was attacked several times by Japanese planes during WW2. Taking the ferry across to Horn Island one day, we took a bus tour of the major sights which included historic sites of gun emplacements, WW2 airstrip, WW2 plane crash sites, a restored anti-aircraft gun and slit trenches. The Heritage Museum in town houses an astonishing collection of local history, pearling and war photos and memorabilia, and enough information to last through weeks of reading!

A friend from my teaching days lives on Thursday Island, so we spent an afternoon around at her place meeting her family and catching up, and on a nice calm Torres Strait evening, they took us out in their speedboat for a sunset cruise around the closest islands (Goods, Friday, and past Prince of Wales Islands). The casual Thursday Island lifestyle was clearly evident in this cruise, with Jess and Steve, their four kids ranging from 1 to 7 years old, Gary and me, an esky and two camp chairs all crammed into the back of this boat, having a sip or two of our chosen “poison” and spilling more of it as the boat slapped repeatedly on the choppy waters. Calm? Probably not as calm as I had envisaged!

After 5 nights on the island, we repacked our bags and took the ferry back to Seisia on the mainland and back to Roxy. And then we headed up to our ultimate destination -Pajinka – The Tip of Cape York. It’s about a 40-kilometre drive along corrugated a road – of course! – through tropical forest and jungle with a couple of shallow river crossings, till you get to the carpark. Once you have managed to get a car space amongst the heaps of other vehicles parked there, it’s about 800 metres walking up over a rocky trail and down to The Tip, Australian mainland’s northernmost point, marked by a signpost stating this fact. Considering how far it is to come and how rough the route to get there, it’s surprising to see the hordes of people that flock to this point but gratifying to see the considerate behaviors where everyone waits their turn for THE photos of them beside the signpost, and/or offering to take yours. It’s a rough and wild spot, with waves crashing in from all directions, made more so on our visit by the gusty wind, but the stunning views southwards along the beaches and out to sea and surrounding islands are worth the effort of the trip. And of course, getting THAT pic with the sign is VERY important!!

Heading back to Seisia, we called in at The Croc Tent for souvenirs, then out to Punsand Bay Resort, where many visitors to the area choose to stay, and where we enjoyed a great lunch at the aptly named Corrugation Bar.

So, after almost two weeks at the top, it was time to start heading south again, although the thought of tackling THAT road and all its corrugations again didn’t hold much excitement for either of us.

About a hundred kilometres south of Seisia, we turned off the Northern Bypass Road onto a short section of the OTT and headed into Fruit Bat Falls, about 3 km off the road. Again, the carpark was pretty crowded – we were getting used to this by now, so not too surprised! Once we walked along the short boardwalk and track to the falls, we could understand why – Fruit Bat Falls is an undeniable highlight of the sights to see on a trip up Cape York. The track leads to an expansive freshwater pool at the base of a shallow but wide waterfall, above which the sandstone rock platform has several natural “spa” pools. It’s not just a pretty place, but a welcome spot after the heat and dry of the Cape savannah to enjoy a refreshing swim, safe in the knowledge that there’s no crocs. And yes, heaps of people were there availing themselves of that opportunity! Makes it a bit hard to get a photo of the whole falls without people in it!

Heading another 8 kilometres up the OTT to visit Eliot and Twin Falls meant negotiating a couple of deep, steep but dry crossing points. After watching a couple of 4WD vehicles go through the first one, we decided that Roxy was also capable so through we went without much worry. Once through, the rest of the track out to the falls was pretty easy going.

Wow! Is the only word I can use to describe Twin and Eliot Falls. Again, a boardwalk takes you down to the falls area. Twin Falls is a broad cataract where the waters of Canal Creek cascade over several tiers of the sandstone platforms till they join Eliot Creek. Just upstream from the confluence, the Eliot Creek tumbles over a horseshoe shaped ledge, creating several separate waterfalls that flow into the creek below. So inviting and SO amazing! Again, both swimming spots were pretty crowded, so we back tracked a little and crossed another deep steep dry crossing that took us up to a free camp area further upstream on Canal Creek where we spent the night. After setting up camp, we wandered over to the next creek crossing to watch a couple of vehicles taking this wet and challenging crossing of the creek (we’re still on the OTT here) and decided that it was DEFINITELY not for us!  So then we walked upstream a bit further to enjoy a refreshing dip in the myriad bubbling spa pools that had been gouged out of the rock – a great end to the day!

Heading down the Bamaga Road, it seemed the road was even worse than when we went up two weeks ago if that was at all possible, but then there had probably been a couple of thousand vehicles gone through in that time so I guess it was possible!  In any case, driving the 120 kilometres from the Fruit Bat Falls turnoff to Bramwell Junction Roadhouse took us three hours!

 We turned onto the Batavia Downs Road which took us through to the Peninsula Development Road and only 70 kilometres short of Weipa, so we headed in that direction. Having decided that Weipa would probably be pretty busy by the time we got there and having also seen several signs along the roadside of a cheap $2 camp spot, we thought we would check that out. It turned out to be a large, cleared area beside a dam on York Downs Station. It had a long drop toilet and no one else was there, so it suited us just fine and we spent a restful night beside the dam with only lots of birds for company.

After a night in Weipa and a quick look around – not really too much to see as all the mine tours were booked out for the next few days and the place was packed too – we headed off. Calling in at Archer River on the way through, we hoped to get some forms for the upcoming census, but they only had them for campers staying there. We were pleased however, that we were able to retrieve Gary’s RFDS cap that he had left on a seat when we had dinner there three weeks ago! So we ended up spending the night on the river just above Coen, AND we were visited there by a census collector, so all was good!

WTF?? or Ha Ha!!

• Having a drink at the beach-front bar at Loyalty, Gary took and posted online a photo of me with the lovely beach, sunset and island background. Response from our 4-year-old grandson – “I see Oma drinking a bourbon!”
• Thursday Island -first night in a motel, paid almost $250 and they didn’t even have milk for our cup of tea!
• Heading up to the Tip on the Pajinka Road, we passed three scrawny looking dogs about 10 kilometres beyond The Croc Tent souvenir shop – one appeared to be dead lying on the road. When we got back to the Croc Tent on our way back down, there they were – all three of them. So obviously NOT dead, just resting!
• At the OTT turnoff to Fruit Bat Falls, here came Old Mate on his pushbike.  He’s taken four weeks from Cairns to pedal up to this point on the OTT, planning to reach the Tip. WHAT WAS HE THINKING??!!!
• Coming back out of Eliot & Twin Falls, had to wait for 4 vehicles coming through that first steep dry crossing. First one comes through, and Old Mate comes and asks, “Is this the worst crossing?” Gary asked him how far he was going, and he replied, “All the way”. We got the feeling this was his first major 4WD attempt, and if he thought that crossing was hard, then he was in for a very rude shock!!
• The things you see. Just coming out of Coen and hit the gravel road. There’s a retro looking caravan pulled off the side of the road and standing beside the road is a man wearing a KILT!!