Thursday Island Cemetery is a 12.77 hectare reserve located on the central northern side of the island, bounded on the south by Summers Street, from where the land slopes north/northwest down to Aplin Road. A track winds down a gully from Summers Street to Aplin Road, providing access to graves on either side. The main entrance is now from Aplin Road.
The terrain varies from steeply sloping in the southern section to flat in the northern section. The ground is comprised of clay and granite, and the surface is extremely rocky. Vegetation is predominantly indigenous, with Eucalypts and other native trees providing light tree coverage throughout the reserve, most densely along the eastern ridge. Native grasses provide a dense ground cover over most of the reserve, restricting access to the graves, particularly during the wet season, when the grass is long. In addition, some areas on the western side of the track are overgrown with bean tree [Leucaena sp.], which prevents access at any time of the year. The newer sections of the cemetery have a few specimen trees and shrubs such as frangipani [Plumeria rubra], Hibiscus [Hibiscus sinensis] and Crotons [Codiaeum variegatum].
The grave furnishings in the cemetery are diverse in design and materials - the latter including timber, polished granite, marble, sandstone, early cast iron, and later concrete and tiles. The variety of materials used in grave marking reflect social attitudes to death, the availability of materials, cultural and religious backgrounds, and the changing socio-economic conditions of local residents. Early headstones in the cemetery were imported from well known monumental masons in southern centres, mostly from Melrose and Fenwick (Townsville), but also from firms such as John Petrie and J Clements of Brisbane. Designs include columns, obelisks, desks and upright slabs, generally with the more elaborate decoration found on early Catholic graves. There is also a range of Christian cross designs.
Some of the earlier graves have iron railing grave surrounds, or evidence of where this was used. The majority of graves, both marked and unmarked, retain their numeric metal cemetery markers. Most of the early graves face east, as is traditional in European burial grounds. However, graves in the Japanese pearl-divers' section and most of the more recent graves, tend to face west.
More recent graves have elaborate decorative tiling on a concrete base, and are extremely colourful. Placing a permanent photograph of the deceased on the headstone is also very popular. These graves are illustrative of a genre of grave marking which has emerged from the unique ethnic and cultural mix to which the Torres Strait islands have been subject since the 1870s. Although most Islanders are Christians, they have incorporated what is believed to be a traditional [pre-1870s] mortuary rite, the tomb-opening ceremony, within their current religious practices. This ceremony occurs 12 months or more after a burial, at which time the grave markings are installed. Throughout the year there is evidence of tombstone openings in the form of decorations remaining after opening, tombstones wrapped and covered awaiting opening, or newer graves with wooden roofing constructed over them awaiting opening.
Early graves appear to be grouped according to religion or ethnicity, but a clear picture of the original cemetery layout is not possible. Little early documentation survives, parts of the site are inaccessible, and much of the remainder is so overgrown that the identification of graves, iron markers and headstones is difficult. A conservation plan for the Thursday Island Cemetery, completed in May 2000, identified 21 distinct groupings of graves [Areas A-T], but there were sections of the reserve which were inaccessible at time of survey, and unable to be recorded.
From what can be discerned, the original layout of Thursday Island Cemetery reflects the social structure and hierarchical patterns established on Thursday Island in the late 19th century, with the most influential social groups located at the top of the hill near Summers Street, and the least influential located near Aplin Road on the flats.
The southern and highest end of the cemetery was the earliest section of the reserve to be established. On this section, at the top of the hill adjacent to Summers Street and overlooking Ellis Channel [Area L], are the graves of some of Thursday Island's early European 'elite', including the Hon. John Douglas, Premier of Queensland 1877-79 and long-term Government Resident on Thursday Island 1885-86 and 1888-1904, who died on the island in 1904. His grave is marked by a tall obelisk in polished blue granite. All the graves in this area face east.
On the southern and western slopes of this hill, closer to Summers Street, is the original Protestant section [most likely mainly Anglican], which includes the earliest metal cemetery plot marker [Area M]. There were burials in this section from at least 1887, and the earliest marked graves date to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Also in this section of the cemetery is an early monument to seven pilots in the Queensland Pilot Service who died in the Strait between 1894 and 1917. Some of the graves on the western slope of this hill face west, and those on the southern slope mostly face south. The conservation plan records evidence of a track leading west around the hill and providing access to graves in the area, which is now overgrown and inaccessible.
The early Catholic burial ground is located a little further down the hill, to the west of the cemetery track, in the steep southwest section of the cemetery [Area N]. Graves here face east. Most have concrete grave surrounds, and many also have metal railings embedded in the concrete. Most have marble headstones, crosses or cairns. Much of this section is overgrown and access is difficult, but at the crest of the hill are the graves of at least three Catholic nuns, and these appear to have been specially maintained. A marble memorial to William Conroy, a Senior Constable of Police who died in the line of duty in 1895, has also been maintained. Two of the most prominent and decorative of the Catholic headstones are those marking the graves of Thomas and Ellen McNulty, who established the Thursday Island Hotel in 1879, and who were important in the establishment of the Catholic Church on Thursday Island in the 1880s.
On the steep slopes east of the cemetery access track, still in the southern part of the reserve but north of the Protestant section near Summers Street, are a large number of overgrown graves, mostly of Japanese origin [Area K]. Some have granite cairns engraved with Japanese lettering. Still on the eastern side of track, but further toward the centre of the cemetery and closer to the track, are the graves of Muslim Indonesians and Malays, and some Torres Strait Islanders [Areas I-J]. These are on relatively flat land and are generally well maintained. Wherever Muslim or Shinto burials have taken place, there are likely to be offerings of food and toys.
Graves in the central section of the cemetery, on flatter but still elevated and sloping land, and on both sides of the access road, are predominantly Christian, both European and Islander [Areas E-G, O-Q]. There are no immediately discernible denominational divisions, but family groupings are evident. Area P is inaccessible due to an infestation at bean tree [Leucaena sp.]. Area H, adjacent to the Christian graves on the eastern side of the access track in the central part of the cemetery, contains a small grouping of graves which appear to be of Islamic origin. Two early graves in this section face east.
Closer to the northern end of the cemetery reserve, on gently sloping land east of the access track, is a section of mainly early 1900s European graves [Area D]. The denomination is not evident. Two substantial stone cairns have been built here in memory of two servicemen. These have concrete grave surrounds with artillery shells standing at each corner. The majority of graves in this section retain their metal cemetery marker.
North of this area, still on the eastern side of the track, is a section of older European graves mixed with later mostly Islander graves [Area C]. All graves face west. The graves in the southern and eastern sections of this area are inaccessible due to an infestation of bean tree [Leucaena sp.] To the north of Area C is a grouping of more recent, mostly Torres Strait Islander Christian graves. This area is very well maintained.
At the northeast end of the reserve, on the flat land beside Aplin Road, is the Japanese pearl-shell divers' burial ground [Area A]. This area is reasonably well maintained. Most of the graves in this section have raised mounds covered with stone, concrete, or a combination of both. Many are marked with granite or concrete columns, usually consisting of three sections, and a few have European-style marble and concrete headstones. Graves without such markers are marked either with wooden posts painted white with Japanese characters lettered in black; or with unpainted timber posts with engraved inscriptions of Japanese characters. A few graves remain as mounds but are otherwise unmarked. On some of the Japanese graves are small concrete birdcages, housing food for the spirits of the departed divers, and on some graves, frangipani [Plumeria rubra] have been planted. The majority of graves in this area contain a metal cemetery grave marker.
To the northwest are the graves of mainly Torres Strait Islanders [Areas R-T]. The most recent graves are located here, in Area B and in some of the central sections of the reserve, and generally are well maintained. However, there is a dense infestation of bean tree [Leucaena sp.] in Area S, on the western side of the access track.
","history":"Thursday Island Cemetery was established c1887, ten years after the formation of a permanent settlement on the island. It contains hundreds of graves, including between 600 and 700 Japanese (mostly pearl-shell divers), entrepreneurs and fortune hunters of all nationalities, Torres Strait pilots, sailors and ships' passengers drowned at sea, as well as generations of Thursday Islanders. The Hon. John Douglas, a former Premier of Queensland and long-term Government Resident on Thursday Island, is buried in the cemetery.
Thursday Island [Waibene] is located within the Prince of Wales [Muralag] group, just off the northwest tip of Cape York. Although one of the smallest of the Torres Strait Islands, Thursday Island is the principal port and administrative centre for the district. It is also Queensland's [and Australia's] most northern town.
The original inhabitants of the Muralag islands, the Kaurareg people, shared some cultural characteristics with Cape York Aborigines and spoke the same basic Australian language, Kala Lagaw Ya. However, they were a maritime people who lived from harvesting the sea, shifting camp sites regularly. Waibene ['the dry island'] had no permanent water supply, and no permanent Kaurareg settlement was established there.
During the first half of the 19th century British shipping began to make regular use of Torres Strait, entering into a passing trade with the Islanders. Colonial occupation commenced in the 1860s and 1870s with the arrival of bêche-de-mer crews, pearl-shellers, Protestant missionaries from the southwestern Pacific, and government officials.
Queensland had no jurisdiction over the Torres Strait until its annexation in 1872 of the islands of the southern half of the Strait, a measure intended largely to protect Queensland interests in the pearl-shelling and bêche-de-mer fisheries in the Strait and along the Barrier Reef, and to regulate the employment of South Sea Islanders in these enterprises. At annexation, Torres Strait Islanders acquired the same official status as mainland Aborigines.
The official Queensland government settlement at Somerset on Cape York [established in 1864] was moved in 1877 to the newly surveyed town of Port Kennedy on the southern side of Thursday Island. The new location provided a sheltered, deepwater anchorage, and was more centrally located along the main shipping route through the inner channel of Torres Strait - the principal trade route to Asia and the northern route to England. The first sale of crown land at Port Kennedy was held in April 1878. Although only sections 1-3 at the southwest end of the town [closest to the government buildings] were offered for sale, allotments in these sections were eagerly purchased by Queensland entrepreneurs.
In 1879, at British Colonial Office direction, Queensland jurisdiction was extended to the islands of the northern half of the Torres Strait. This enabled Britain to secure the Torres Strait shipping channel without having to annex New Guinea.
By 1884 Port Kennedy was the principal port for cargo and passengers being trans-shipped to Normanton, and was the hub of the pearl-shell and bêche-de-mer fisheries in the Torres Strait. The town had a permanent population of about 70, and served a district of nearly 700 inhabitants. In addition, within from 3 to 50 miles of Thursday Island pearl-shell and bêche-de-mer fishing stations were employing about 1500 people of all races [including significant numbers of South Sea Islanders, Japanese and Filipinos]. In late 1884, for example, about 100 Japanese divers were recorded at Thursday Island. At this period about 800 or 900 tons of shell were exported annually to New South Wales and [mainly] Britain, and the Queensland Government was collecting substantial revenue from licenses.
A local census taken c1885 identified over 300 persons resident on Thursday Island, comprising 'whites' [approximately 45%], Malays, Manilla, Chinese, Japanese, East Indian, Arabs, and 'natives'. Further successful sales of crown land at Port Kennedy were held in January 1885 and September 1888, and by 1890 the island's population had grown to 526, composed of Europeans, Chinese, Torres Strait Islanders and Aborigines, South Sea Islanders, Malays, Filipinos, Japanese, Singhalese, Indians, and a few Thais, Arabs and Africans. This ethnic and cultural mix characterised the communities of the Torres Strait prior to the Second World War.
With the expansion of non-government settlement on Thursday Island, the provision of a public cemetery became a necessity. It has not been established where the earliest burials on the island took place, but the earliest section of the present Thursday Island Cemetery - 8 acres along Summers and Blackall Streets, on a high ridge in the centre of the island - had been identified as a suitable site for a cemetery by January 1887. It was proclaimed as a permanent cemetery reserve on 8 July 1887, and in September cemetery Trustees were appointed. The trustees were drawn from amongst the town's principal 'white' entrepreneurs. By the time the cemetery reserve was officially surveyed in February or March 1888, several interments had taken place and a track off Summers Street into the cemetery had been established. The trustees employed the same surveyor to survey the cemetery into denominational and/or nationality divisions at this time, but no record of this survey is known to have survived. In February 1888 the Trustees formed regulations and by-laws for the effective operation of the cemetery, and in mid-1888 paid nearly £100 for the construction of wire fencing on the reserve. By the end of 1889 a sign-board had been erected, and work had started on the formation of paths within the cemetery. During 1893, the Trustees had shade trees planted and further work on clearing and making cemetery paths was undertaken.
The Trustees soon found that much of the reserve was unsuitable for burial purposes, being too steep and rocky, which escalated the cost of burials and made drainage of the site difficult. In the wet season, the cemetery paths became gullies, and had to be repaired on a yearly basis. In the mid-1890s, as the population of Thursday Island increased rapidly, the Trustees requested two extensions to the cemetery reserve. On 11 July 1894 the reserve was doubled in size to 16 acres, with the addition of a strip of land about half the width of the existing cemetery reserve, which extended north to the military track (now Aplin Road) along the foreshore. This included more level, less rocky land, and also provided access along the foreshore road to the hospital on Point Vivien, in the southwest corner of the island. The reserve was expanded yet again on 29 April 1896 to 26 acres 1 rood 4 perches, when the northern boundary of the eastern half of the reserve was also extended as far as the military road. These extensions encompassed the area now known as the Japanese [Divers'] Cemetery, near Aplin Road.
Japanese divers made a significant contribution to the development of the pearl-shell industry in the Torres Strait. Europeans who established the industry in the Strait in the late 1860s and early 1870s relied initially on South Sea Islander labour, who tended to dominate (often violently) the Torres Strait Islanders. In the 1870s boats equipped with helmeted apparatus for divers appeared, and in the 1880s the pearl-shellers turned to a more skilled, often more daring, and less confronting labour supply - Japanese divers [often ex-sailors] recruited principally from Hong Kong and Singapore. In the 1880s the proportion of Japanese divers in the Strait was no greater than any other ethnic group, but from 1891, when the Japanese Government removed its ban on emigration, numbers increased significantly. By 1893 the Japanese were the largest ethnic group in the Torres Strait pearl-shell industry, and completely dominated the industry between 1900 and 1940. By 1900 all the luggers built at Thursday Island were crafted by Japanese, and a 'Japanese town', with boarding houses, a public bath, stores and a brothel, had been established at the eastern end of Port Kennedy. This was destroyed during the Second World War by American troops, who reputedly utilised the building materials for barracks.
The pearl-shell industry came to a halt during the Second World War when Naval authorities requisitioned most of the luggers. After the war there was a brief resurgence of the industry, but pearl-shelling declined dramatically in the 1960s when competition from the booming post-war plastics industry usurped traditional uses for pearl-shell, such as buttons and knife handles.
Pearl-shell diving was a hazardous occupation and fatalities were high. One source suggests over 1,000 divers lost their lives in Torres Strait to the 'bends', from drowning or through shark attack. Thursday Island Cemetery contains between 600 and 700 graves bearing Japanese names. One authority records that most Japanese divers professed to be Anglicans, so that they could be buried at the Divers' Cemetery within the Thursday Island Cemetery. Certainly there was a strong Japanese presence within the Anglican community on Thursday Island. A Japanese school had been established by the Japanese community on the Anglican church precinct in Douglas Street by 1900, and the Japanese contributed to fund-raising for building the Church of England Parish Institute [1902-03] and various additions to the Quetta Memorial Cathedral Church in the 1890s and early 1900s.
In 1979, the Monument Building Committee of Japan erected a memorial/shrine in the Thursday Island Cemetery, to honour the hundreds of Japanese who worked, lived and died in the Torres Strait between 1878 and 1941. A resident of Japan established a trust of about $100,000 to ensure the future maintenance of the Japanese gravestones.
With the expansion of the Torres Strait pearl-shell industry in the early years of the 20th century the town of Thursday Island [formerly Port Kennedy] also grew, and a further extension to the Thursday Island Cemetery was made on 9 January 1913, with the addition of about 5 acres of mostly flat, less rocky land along Aplin Road to the west, bringing the area of the reserve to 31 acres 2 roods 9 perches. This remains the current extent of the Thursday Island Cemetery reserve [12.77 hectares]. The extension was intended to accommodate mostly 'pagan' burials, which constituted a large proportion of burials in the Thursday Island Cemetery at this period. [Prior to 1973, all non-Christian interments were recorded as 'pagan', despite the large number of other religions represented on the island including Shinto, Buddhism and Islam.] From 1912 until after the Second World War, Torres Strait Islanders were prohibited from residing on Thursday Island, which accounts for the smaller proportion of Islander graves of this period in Thursday Island Cemetery.
One of the more significant graves in the cemetery is that of the Hon. John Douglas, CMG, (1828-1904), pastoralist, Liberal politician 1863-1879 [serving as Premier of Queensland 1877-79], and administrator [Government Resident on Thursday Island 1885-86 and 1888-1904], who died on the island on 23 July 1904. He was deeply involved in developing the settlement on Thursday Island. He was an active warden in the Church of England and on 24 May 1893 laid the foundation stone of the Quetta Memorial Church. He served on various local committees, and was a Cemetery Trustee from 1889 until his death. He won the respect of the Torres Strait Islanders, who in the early 1900s funded construction of the west aisle of the Quetta Memorial Cathedral Church, dedicated in 1913 as the Douglas Memorial Chapel.
Although Thursday Island Cemetery contains hundreds of burials, the earliest of which date to at least 1887, there is no surviving record of interments prior to 1939. The Register of Interments held by Torres Shire Council starts on 31 March 1939. There are no entries between 22 July 1940 and 11 February 1948. Most Thursday Island civilians were evacuated in 1942 and did not return until 1946 or later. Thursday Island was administered by military authorities during 1942-45, and from mid-1946 to February 1948, Thursday Island Cemetery was managed by the local Stipendiary Magistrate. When local Trustees were re-appointed early in 1948, they found that the Cemetery was in poor repair, no maintenance having been carried out since 1940, and claimed £315 from the War Damage Commission to effect necessary repairs. They also discovered that the Minute Book, Cash Book and Cemetery Register to 1939, which in 1942 had been left on the island in a locked safe, were missing.
It took the Trustees some years, but by 1952 they reported that the cemetery was in good order, with fences, gates and roads repaired. The greatest difficulty was in securing grave-diggers. In the early 1960s the Trustees attempted to persuade the Thursday Island Town Council to take on the management of the cemetery, but eventually, State government officials and local priests took on the role of trustees.
Despite the establishment of municipal government on Thursday Island as early as 1912, the cemetery remained the responsibility of community trustees for over a century. In 1991 Torres Shire Council assumed control of the reserve and new by-laws were gazetted.
","criteria":"Thursday Island Cemetery, established c1887 and still open for interments, is important in illustrating the rich diversity of culture and custom on Thursday Island and in the Torres Strait in general, which is one of the most ethnically diverse parts of Queensland. The cemetery contains the graves of hundreds of people from many nationalities, cultures and religious backgrounds [including Christianity, Buddhism, Shinto and Islam]. The large Japanese [Divers'] Cemetery within the reserve is illustrative the role of the Japanese in the development of the pearl-shell industry in the Torres Strait, the dangerous nature of this work, and the close cultural and economic connections which the people of the Torres Strait have had with the sea and maritime industries.
|Thursday Island Cemetery is significant as a unique historical record, illustrating important aspects of the island's history including its pearling industry, the First and Second World Wars, its social structure from the late 19th century, and attitudes towards religion and burial practices. The names on the headstones in the cemetery illustrate the high degree of ethnic intermarriage in the Strait since the 1870s. The degree of cultural diversity and the existence of a substantial and early Japanese Cemetery within the reserve is rare in Queensland.
|The place has potential to reveal further information about the history of this most northern part of Queensland, and of late 19th century cemetery layouts, particularly if the ground cover were cleared to reveal the full extent and diversity of burials and burial customs.
|The place has strong aesthetic appeal, engendered by the variety and detail of the headstones and other grave markers which range from the 1880s to the present day [contemporary Islander graves are particularly colourful and dynamic], and the romantic island setting, with views to the water from most parts of the reserve.
|The place is highly valued by the community of Thursday Island and by those outside of the community who have relatives buried in the cemetery. It is also a popular tourist destination.
|The place is significant as the resting place of a former Queensland Premier and Government Resident of Thursday Island, the Hon. John Douglas (1828-1904), whose grave is located at the top of the highest hill in the cemetery, overlooking Ellis Channel and the islands of the southern Torres Strait. The cemetery contains a number of other significant memorials, including a large monument to the Japanese, and an early memorial to Torres Strait pilots who lost their lives in the execution of their duties.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16050,"place_ref":601287,"name":"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church","alternate_name":"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church","street_address":"120 Douglas Street","suburb":"THURSDAY ISLAND","lga":"TORRES SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-12-07","description":"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church is a substantial timber building with a gabled roof clad with galvanised iron, and concrete foundations. It is sited prominently in Douglas Street on the slope leading up to the east-west ridge which runs the length of the island, and from the water approach, is a conspicuous element in the Thursday Island townscape. It sits within a precinct which includes the Catholic presbytery, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart convent and school, and teacher's residence.
The building is rectangular in shape [no transepts] with a small front porch and side verandahs, and rear vestry. The timber frame is lined with single-skin chamferboards on the side walls, but the front wall, which is exposed to the weather, has an exterior weatherboard cladding. The vestry has been clad externally with fibrous-cement sheeting. The church is raised above the ground on concrete piers, and the undercroft is enclosed with concrete walling.
The front elevation faces south-east, and is distinguished by a fibre-glass spire - a copy of the original. The centrally located front door, the windows either side of the door, and the window in the gable infill, all have Gothic arches. Similarly shaped windows are located along each side wall. All the windows are multi-paned and have bright red and blue glass in the arch infill, and the windows and french doors nearest the sanctuary also have large panels of green glass. One of the front windows has panes of bright yellow glass.
The grounds are terraced with rubble stone retaining walls. Four flights of concrete steps lead from the lower terrace to the upper terrace and up to the front door of the church.
Internally, the building comprises one large space rectangular divided into nave and sanctuary, with chamferboard ceiling and walls. At the rear of the nave above the front entrance is a choir loft, accessed from a staircase in the southern corner. The choir loft has a decorative cast iron railing and fine timber work. A painted timber confessional is located at the rear of the nave, to the right of the main entrance. On either side of the nave, close to the sanctuary, is a set of french doors opening onto the side verandahs. The ceiling is lined with chamferboards.
The floors are of timber, that of the sanctuary being raised about 60cm above the floor of the nave, and accessed by two steps running the width of the floor. The railing which once separated sanctuary from nave has been removed. The sanctuary has a fine carved timber altar. The whole of the rear wall of the sanctuary is lined with sheeting and has a painted trompe l'oeil mural painted in 1935. There is similar trompe l'oeil work on the front of the altar. Above the altar in the rear wall is a circular window with painted glass. Two doors in the rear wall, one either side of the altar, lead to the vestry at the rear.
","history":"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church at Thursday Island was erected by French and Italian priests of the Mission of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who had arrived on the island in October 1884. On Thursday Island they established the first Catholic mission in the Torres Strait, erecting there a small church c1885. If this is the existing church [this is not substantiated], it is the oldest surviving building on Thursday Island. Photographic evidence suggests that by c1905, the church had acquired its present form and concrete footings.
Queensland had no jurisdiction over the islands of the Torres Strait until annexing them in 1872, largely to protect Queensland interests in the pearl-shelling and bêche-de-mer fisheries in the Strait, and to regulate the employment of South Sea Islanders in these enterprises. With annexation, Torres Strait Islanders acquired the same status as mainland Aborigines, and the official Queensland government settlement at Somerset on Cape York [established 1864] was moved in 1877 to Port Kennedy at Thursday Island. The new location provided a sheltered, deepwater anchorage, and was more centrally located along the main shipping route through the inner channel of Torres Strait - the principal trade route to Asia and the northern route to England. The island was known to the Kaurareg, a maritime people who inhabited the off-shore islands near Cape York, as Waibene.
By early 1884 Port Kennedy had emerged as the principal port for cargo and passengers being trans-shipped to Normanton, and was the hub of the pearl-shell and bêche-de-mer fisheries in the Torres Strait. The permanent population was about 70, and it serviced a district of nearly 700 inhabitants. In addition, within from 3 to 50 miles of Thursday Island pearl-shell and bêche-de-mer fishing stations were employing about 1500 people of all races [including significant numbers of South Sea Islanders, Japanese and Filipinos]. At this period about 800 or 900 tons of shell were exported annually to New South Wales and [mainly] Britain, and the Queensland Government was collecting substantial revenue from licenses.
The Mission of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart had been founded in France by Fr Louis André Navarre, Dean of Bourges, in the 1860s, and was approved of as a religious congregation by the Holy See in 1869. In March 1881 Pope Leo XIII requested that the Sacred Heart Fathers establish a mission in New Guinea, within the Vicariate Apostolic of Melanesia and Micronesia. Like the protestant evangelists who had arrived in the Torres Strait in the early 1870s, the Sacred Heart Fathers decided to facilitate their entry into New Guinea by establishing a mission in Torres Strait, to serve as a stop-over station and link between the Society's missions on the Australian mainland and their proposed mission in New Guinea.
On 24 October 1884 the first three Sacred Heart missionaries - Fr Louis André Navarre, Fr Ferdinand Hartzer, and Br Giuseppe de Santis - arrived at Thursday Island, soon to be joined by two more fathers and three young Italian brothers. Initially, Sunday mass was held at McNulty's Hotel [later the Federal Hotel], the congregation comprising mostly Filipino pearl-shell fishers [Manilla Men]. At Christmas the Filipinos came in their hundreds to attend mass and seek confession.
In January 1885 Frs Navarre and Hartzer purchased allotment 4 of section 4 [2 roods] in Port Kennedy for £6, at the first sale of crown land on Thursday Island. By February 1886 they had erected a small church and a dwelling house. By December 1886, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart mission at Thursday Island comprised three buildings, all constructed by the Italian brothers: a small, unpretentious iron church, some little distance up the hill, to one side of this a small convent accommodating four Sisters, and to the other a presbytery which also served as a sanatorium for fever-stricken and debilitated priests from New Guinea and other islands . . . It is not clear whether the c1885 church is the existing church.
From 1884 to 1889 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart mission at Thursday Island was the point of departure for all the Catholic missions - French, German, Swiss and other nationalities - in British New Guinea and New Britain. After 1889 the German Missionaries went directly to New Britain but the French continued to stop over at Thursday Island before going to their New Guinea mission headquarters at Yule Island. Later they went via Port Moresby.
The first Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart arrived at Thursday Island in January 1886 and a year later opened a small school on the verandah of the convent. Not until c1900 was a purpose-designed schoolhouse erected. In the late 1880s the Sisters also established Thursday Island's first and only hospital, until a government hospital was constructed c1910. In 1889 the Sacred Heart missionaries also erected St Henry's Roman Catholic Asylum, a charitable institution conducted by the Sacred Heart Sisters, who offered board and education to children of every race and denomination within the Vicariates of New Guinea and New Britain. This was closed in 1942, reopened briefly in 1948, and in 1961-62 was converted to house Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, the c1900 school building being abandoned. In 1973 a new Sacred Heart school was constructed.
In 1889 the Vicariate Apostolic of Melanesia and Micronesia was divided into the Vicariates of British New Guinea [later Papua], New Britain and Gilbert Islands. Thursday Island was placed under the Vicariate Apostolic of British New Guinea, Fr Louis André Navarre being appointed the first Vicar Apostolic and consecrated Bishop. Archbishop Navarre devoted the remainder of his life to his work in the Vicariate Apostolic of British New Guinea. Owing to age and ill health he resigned his position in 1908, Father Alain Guynot de Boismenu succeeding him. By the time of his death in January 1912 [at Townsville, en route south from New Guinea] the New Guinea Mission of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was served by 25 missionaries, 21 lay brothers, and 38 sisters; they had opened 38 schools and two orphanages; 28 stations had been established, each provided with churches, schools and residences; and from the central station on Yule Island, 78 villages were regularly visited and instructed.
The work of the Sacred Heart missionaries on Thursday Island was expanded in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1927 Father J Doyle was appointed Parish Priest on Thursday Island. He obtained permission from the Queensland Department of Native Affairs to establish a mission on Hammond Island [then without a resident population] to service the pearl-shell divers and their families in the area, and this was opened in 1929. In 1935 a mission church was erected on Naghir island, about 30 miles from Thursday Island, but this had been demolished by white ants by the early 1940s.
In 1935 David Sing, born at Thursday Island in 1911, painted the trompe l'oeil murals on the rear wall of the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, and on the front of the altar. David became a lay missionary at the age of 17, and painted religious works in Catholic churches at Thursday Island, Port Moresby and Tully. [The Tully work, a painting on canvas hung behind the altar, no longer survives.] He studied with JS Watkins in Sydney, and was early influenced by the French Impressionist School, before entering the Trappist Order in the United States, where he studied at the Chicago Art Institute. About 1949 he entered the Carthusian Order in Italy - the first Australian to be ordained into the Order - and studied art in Paris and Rome. His paintings proved an important source of income for the Carthusians, and were collected by persons as prominent as Jaqueline Onassis and Patricia Nixon. In the late 1970s, during a 3-year visit to Australia, he painted portraits of a number of prominent Australians, including author Xavier Herbert and thalidomide researcher Dr William G McBride [both these portraits were entered in the Archibald Prize competition of 1977]. Sing also held an exhibition of landscapes, still-life and portraits in Sydney in 1978.
In 1938 the Sacred Heart Mission in the Torres Strait was transferred from the Vicariate Apostolic of Papua [formerly British New Guinea] to the Diocese of Darwin, becoming a Mission of the Australian Province. It remained within the Diocese of Darwin until transferred to the Diocese of Cairns in 1967, after which the parish was no longer staffed by Sacred Heart priests, but by Cairns Diocesan clergy. Since 1968, Sacred Heart school on Thursday Island has been run by Sisters of Mercy from Cairns.
With the transfer to the Cairns Diocese in 1967, Weipa and Bamaga on Cape York were annexed to the Thursday Island Mission, although Bamaga had been serviced from Thursday Island for some years prior to this. In 1982 Weipa separated from Thursday Island parish, which currently comprises the missions at Thursday Island [Waibene], Hammond Island [Kiriri], Horn Island [Nurupai] and Bamaga.
In 1983 the flat-iron spire of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church on Thursday Island was replaced with a fibreglass copy as the first phase of a centenary renovations programme. The roof was reclad in 1992.
","criteria":"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church at Thursday Island, erected in the late 19th century, survives as important evidence of early European missionary activity in the Torres Strait. It also offers important evidence of the development of the island as the hub of the Torres Strait and gateway to New Guinea in the late 19th century.
|The place has potential to reveal valuable information about the early work of Thursday Island-born artist, David Sing, who achieved international status with his traditionalist oil paintings.
|The building remains substantially intact and is a good example of a late 19th century timber church with decorative Gothic elements and [less commonly] side verandahs. It retains many early fittings and fixtures, including the choir loft, pews, altar, decorative fretwork, the 1930s painted trompe l'oeil murals on the sanctuary wall and altar, and statuary which integrates with the wall mural to re-inforce the three-dimensional effect.
|The exterior with its decorative verandahs, porch and spire is aesthetically pleasing, and the place is a prominent landmark in the Thursday Island townscape. The place has a strong and special religious significance with a mainly islander community for cultural and spiritual reasons.
|The place has a strong and special religious significance with a mainly islander community for cultural and spiritual reasons.
|It has a close association with the work in the Torres Strait and New Guinea of the Order of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic congregation founded in France in the 1860s, and in particular with their founder, Fr Louis André Navarre; and with the early work of artist David Sing.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16290,"place_ref":601527,"name":"Thursday Island Customs House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"2 Victoria Parade","suburb":"THURSDAY ISLAND","lga":"TORRES SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Thursday Island is one of the many tropical islands in the region known as Torres Straight, lying between the northern tip of Cape York and the New Guinea coast. The Thursday Island Customs House occupies a prominent site in the township of Thursday Island, located on the southern coastline of the island. The Customs House is a two stored masonry building, located fronting Victoria Parade, and bordered by Hastings and Jetty streets. The Government Jetty and Engineers Jetty lie nearby. The building remains a landmark on the island, being one of the few non timber buildings constructed there.
The former Thursday Island Customs House follows the Neo-Georgian style of the 1930s. The double-storey rendered masonry building has projecting balconies at the front and back and a hipped terracotta tile roof, executed on a domestic scale. The windows have timber shutters, a common tropical motif.
The plan form of this building is typical of the customs houses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century period in Queensland. The focus of the building was the long room where business was transacted. This is located in the centre of the ground floor which is entered through the front of the building. Smaller offices are located around this room, including an office for the sub-collector, the person in charge of the operations at the port. On the first floor was the sub-collector's residence, with bedrooms, living areas, and other rooms.
The arcades and balconies fulfilled further purposes apart from satisfying the symmetry and formality desired. Upstairs, the balcony provided a protected yet airy living space, necessary in the tropical climate. Double doorways from the internal rooms often opened onto the balcony, admitting cool breezes. Timber shutters to the openings of the balcony have been installed in the Thursday Island Customs House.
Stripped Classical was a style that retained the important classical elements such as symmetry of massing and elevations, while acknowledging the effect of modernism in design. The buildings of this style were recognisably classical buildings which were however stripped of much of the ornament usually associated with this type of building. Where ornament was applied it was often in the form of Art Deco.
The extent of grounds around the three street frontages of the Customs House allows uninterrupted views of the substantial building, enhancing the status and presentation of the building in the streetscape. The grounds are predominantly flat, comprising open lawns with a few mature trees and a line of tall palms giving added distinction to the substantial building. A concrete path extends from the front entry porch steps straight to a gate in the boundary fence. There is a path along the front of the building. Garden beds fill the space from the base of the walls to this path. The path extends to a small square of concrete paving in the eastern lawn in which a flag pole and small cannon have been placed. Paths extend from the two side entrances to gates at the boundaries.
In massing and proportion, the Thursday Island Customs House is similar to the Cairns Customs House.
","history":"This two stored masonry and stucco building was constructed on Thursday Island for the federal government's Customs Department in 1938. It was designed by the head architect of the Commonwealth Department of Works, Harold Barker, and replaced an earlier Customs House built in 1885.
Thursday Island can lay claim to unique long-term historical, cultural and strategic links with the nation's heritage. The island was first known as "Waiben Island" to the indigenous people of the region, who did not permanently inhabit the island to any great extent. Europeans first visited the area in March 1606, in the Dutch ship "Duyfken". A Spanish voyage visited soon after, followed by Captain Cook, Bligh and Flinders in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The islands in the Torres Strait were annexed by the colonial government of Queensland in 1872. The northern-most town on the mainland at the time was Somerset, established in 1861. This settlement was abandoned in 1877 in favour of a settlement on Thursday Island. There was great hope for growth of this settlement as it was a vital link in the shipping routes between Australia and Asia and England, and served the pearl-luggers and the beche-de-mere harvesters which thrived in the area. There is also evidence that the settlement was established to provide a government presence in the region to stall imperialist tendencies of the Germans and the French in the late nineteenth century.
It was of strategic importance at this time, for the colonial government (and later the Federated colonies) to establish a chain of customs control points at all the main harbours along the coastline. The customs service was responsible for the collection of duties in Australia, which provided funds for the necessary infrastructure in the early settlements. Each of the colonies were furnished with a Customs service upon responsible government from the 1850s and onwards, which provided an important source of revenue, including the imposition of duties on goods traded between colonies. The collection of Customs was consequently central to the development of the colonial governments, and was an important mechanism by which the colonies conducted their affairs. Upon Federation the collection of Customs became a Commonwealth responsibility.
Customs service records indicate that in 1877 a 'Port of Entry and Clearance' was gazetted at Thursday Island on 24 November. Mr H.M. Chester was appointed Customs Sub-Collector and Harbour Master in 1877 and by 1884 the port was gazetted as a warehouse facility. "The port flourished in its early years and a staff of up to six officers was necessary. In 1885 the first Customs House was erected at a cost of £797. In 1890 the Sub-Collectors residence was built at a cost of £1,076." The building was constructed of timber on a platform on short stumps. It was single storeyed, with a verandah on all sides and contained a public counter and 'long room' office, a private Sub-Collectors office and a public office with cashiers window. This Customs House was located on the corner of Douglas and Hastings streets. Accommodation for a growing staff was provided by removing four cottages from Sea Hill near Rockhampton to Thursday Island in 1895. A Tidewaiters cottage was built in 1897.
The main activity in the port was pearl handling. There were numerous Asian and Japanese pearl luggers active in the waters of Torres Strait and it was the customs officers' duty to track and control these and the many trading vessels which stopped at Port Kennedy to refuel with coal, trade and bring immigrants. The ports activities can be gauged from the fact that revenue for the financial year 1879/80 was £2,493 while twenty years later in 1899/1900 it had grown to £19,411. After World War I, the pearling industry quickly returned to its former activity level with sixty luggers active in the Strait. Customs records show reference to "... the important port of Thursday Island, with its timber Customs House, provided a major gateway to Australia, often being the first port of call for ships from Asia."
In 1938 the importance of the port was confirmed once again when a new two storey Customs House was erected. Built of brick and concrete, its ground floor served as the customs office while the second storey served as the Sub-collectors residence. The building cost £9,860 and was one of the most prominent landmarks on the island. It was located on the land directly beside the original timber customs house which was then removed.
Shortly after construction of the new customs house in 1939, war was declared. At the end of January 1942, Thursday Island was evacuated of its non-essential inhabitants. Stores were closing and the Customs officers now had to "do our own cooking, housework, washing, messages if we require anything, nothing is delivered." Gauld reported that "the office work has fallen to practically nil and will probably remain at that from now on." Late in 1942 the military, now in command of the Torres Straight, took control of the Customs House and used it as the residence for the Commander of the Torres Force for the remainder of World War II.
The Customs House returned to the Customs Service in 1946 when military control of Thursday Island was relinquished. The building had stood empty for some months since the Torres Force Commander left it in 1945. Early in 1946, the Sub-Collector for Cairns, M.J. Ryan, visited Thursday Island to inspect the buildings and general situation. He noted, "[a] number of indentured Malay people continue to live in Thursday Island and the place is often an open door to the East." He was also of the opinion that an officer should be detailed for duty at Thursday Island to look after the Customs interests, perform immigration duties and provide facilities under the Navigation Act and Merchant Shipping Act.
Over the years the Customs Service on Thursday Island has been involved in the various Customs duties as determined by the Governments of the day. During the years since the military's occupation of the building in World War II, the Customs House was used continuously by the Australian Customs Service until it passed out of Commonwealth ownership. The building remains a landmark on the island, being one of the few non-timber buildings constructed there.
","criteria":"The former Thursday Island Customs House is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history as it is evidence of an official government activity in a remote location such as Thursday Island. It has further significance as a site of strategic importance to colonial and national governments. The Customs House is also a reflection of the importance of the island as a "gateway" to the colony of Queensland, and later the Commonwealth of Australia.
|The place is a good example of the stripped Classical style of institutional architecture pursued by the Commonwealth Department of Works in the interwar period.
|The Thursday Island Customs House has aesthetic significance for the quality of its design, in particular the way it accommodates the climate of North Queensland; and for its contribution to the Thursday Island environment as one of the largest buildings, and as one of the few non-timber buildings on the island. The aesthetics of the Thursday Island Customs House is strengthened by its settings, including tropical plantings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16466,"place_ref":601724,"name":"Booby Island Lightstation","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Booby Island","suburb":"BOOBY ISLAND","lga":"TORRES SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-11-09","description":"Booby Island Lightstation is located on Booby Island. The island is part of the Prince of Wales Group off the tip of Cape York, 34 kilometres west of Thursday Island. The lightstation complex comprises the whole island (6.07 hectares).
The red-domed, white conical tower is timber-framed and clad in galvanised iron sheeting and stands 16 metres high. The domed roof is sheet copper fixed to cast iron open web joists. The roof is topped by a rounded knob and weather vane.
The three keeper's quarters are timber framed buildings clad with weatherboards and asbestos cement sheets. Other buildings in the precinct include a glasshouse, associated with keepers quarters 3. The timber framed building has external walls constructed of concrete block and the roof of corrugated asbestos cement. The workshop is timber framed with asbestos cement sheet walls and corrugated asbestos cement roof.
Other buildings include office and radio equipment building, with hardwood timber frames, external walls of painted concrete blocks and a corrugated asbestos cement roof.; the relief quarters, with a timber frame, asbestos sheeting on external walls and a corrugated asbestos cement roof; the radio beacon transmitter building, constructed from concrete blocks with timber framed doors and aluminium hopper windows; the power house, concrete block construction with corrugated zinc sheeted roof; the fuel store, built from concrete blocks with corrugated zinc sheeted roof and the tide gauge enclosure, built from fibre cement sheeting with a galvanised metal deck. It is timber framed with aluminium louvre mechanism.
","history":"Up until 10 December 1859, the colony of New South Wales extended as far north as Cape York Peninsula. In 1859, the new colony of Queensland acquired over 5000 kilometres of coastline which had few safety features in place, and became responsible for all navigation lights and harbours along this coastline. At the time the only lighthouse which existed had been built at Cape Moreton [600257] by the New South Wales Government in 1857.
By 1862, the Queensland government had appointed a Portmaster, Commander George Poynter Heath and had passed the Marine Board Act 1862. In the two years following, due to a lack of funds to spend on marine safety, activity concentrated on dealing with pilots and harbour lights, The issue of coastal lights was not taken up until 25 May 1864, when Members of the Legislative Assembly moved that a Select Committee be appointed to enquiry into and report upon the state of the harbours and rivers in the colony. The Committee consisted of Messrs Macalister, Douglas, Sandeman, Cribb, Challinor and Bell and convened for the first time on 27 May 1864. The Committee widened the terms of reference to include..the question of the necessity of additional lighthouses on the coast of Australia, within the colony of Queensland.
A Select Committee was also appointed by the Legislative Council with the more specific field of reference to enquire into and report upon the requirements of this Colony, under its increasing trade and commerce, as to the provision of additional lighthouses for its coasts and harbors.
The reports of both Select Committees were in agreement regarding the necessity of a light at Sandy Cape. Other points where it was considered that lighthouses were required were at Cape Capricorn on Curtis Island, Point Danger or Cape Byron and Bustard Head [601260]. Double Island Point [601722] and Lady Elliot Island were also mentioned by the Committee as possible suitable sites.
It was readily agreed that there was a need for a shipping service in the Torres Strait. The colony's first parliament had passed a resolution in 1860 favouring direct connection with England via the Straits, however, a ship was not chartered to perform the service until 1865. Financial recession a year later ended regular navigation through the Straits and it was not recommenced until 1873. After 1880, the British India Company's Northern trade rapidly expanded and as a cargo service the Company's success was unqualified. It was described as ushering in a new era of progress for the colony.
Heath recommended that a lightstation be constructed on Booby Island at the Inter-Colonial Conference in 1873. Despite the recommendation, the light on Booby Island was the last of the major lights to be constructed along the Queensland coast. It was not until August 1885 that Heath, again referred to Booby Island. Heath considered that due to increased trade through the strait and the establishment of new traffic channel westward of the Prince of Wales Islands, a light was now urgently needed.
Following a series of delays, formal approval for a lighthouse on Booby Island was granted in 1889, when, in April of that year, tenders were called. The contractors for the construction of the tower were J & J Rooney of Maryborough, whose tender of £3329 was accepted. J & J Rooney was a partnership of the brothers John and Jacob Rooney as builders and contractors in Maryborough. The Company had established itself in the timber trade of Maryborough in the 1860s and by 1868 had successfully tendered for the Sandy Cape lighthouse on Fraser Island. Sandy Cape was the first of several lighthouses which the Rooneys constructed for the Colonial Architect's office. Other towers were constructed at Cape Bowling Green, Cowan Cowan, Cape Capricorn and Lady Elliot Island.
A report to the Marine Department's Treasure dated 30th June, 1895, states the initial cost of constructing the Booby Island Lighthouse was £6500, with annual maintenance costs being £528. The light was first exhibited on 24 June 1890.
The residences built in 1890 for the lightkeepers and their families underwent renovations in the 1920s and the 1960s, and remain on site. The light was upgraded in 1917 and converted to electric operation in 1963. A radiobeacon was established on the island in 1961 and a tide gauge installed in 1970. Conversion to solar power was undertaken in November 1991 and the light was automated in 1992. As a result the Chance Brothers lens and cast iron pedestal were removed to the Thursday Island Museum.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1890, the 23rd lighthouse built by the Queensland government, and still in use as part of the coastal navigation system, Booby Island Lightstation occupies an integral part in understanding the establishment of maritime navigational aids along the Queensland coast. The establishment of the Booby Island Lightstation reflects the growth and development of Queensland after its separation from New South Wales.
Booby Island Lightstation is associated with Commander George Poynter Heath, the first Portmaster of Queensland (1862-1890), a significant figure in the development of the Queensland lighthouse service. During Heath's time twelve major lighthouses were built along the Queensland coast.
|Intact lightkeepers' houses from the nineteenth are a rare occurrence and add to the significance of Booby Island Lightstation.
|The lighthouse is substantially intact, and survives as a good example of a type of lighthouse construction, a round timber-framed tower clad with galvanised iron sheets, unique to Queensland and incorporating Queensland resources. The use of a timber framed building clad in iron was continued throughout the Colonial Period, following the construction of the timber-framed lighthouse on Lady Elliott Island in 1873.
|Located on Booby Island in the Torres Strait, and visible from sea and air approaches Booby Island Lightstation is significant as a well-known landmark. Although a comparatively small structure, the lighthouse has aesthetic value, with the white tower, capped by a bright red dome, the lighthouse makes a dramatic visual statement in the natural landscape and is significant for its evocative attributes.
|The place has a strong association with the life of the lightkeepers, their families and maintenance and stores people, who contributed to the continuum of a system dedicated to the single aim of maintaining the navigational aid. The accumulated equipment and buildings are representative of more than 100 years of occupation, including, three surviving timber-framed, nineteenth century lightkeepers' houses. Intact lightkeepers' houses from the nineteenth are a rare occurrence and add to the significance of Booby Island Lightstation.
|Booby Island is also associated with Captain James Cook and William Bligh. Booby Island was so named, due to the presence of the bird population, by Cook in 1770 and again by Bligh in 1789 during his boat journey following the mutiny on the Bounty.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16989,"place_ref":602168,"name":"Quetta Memorial Precinct","alternate_name":"St Bartholomews Old Cathedral | Bishops House | All Souls and St Bartholomews Cathedral Church and Quetta Memorial","street_address":"Douglas Street","suburb":"THURSDAY ISLAND","lga":"TORRES SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-07-27","description":"The Anglican precinct on Thursday Island is located at the southwest end of the island, in the oldest section of the town, one street back from the foreshore. The site is bounded by on the southeast by Douglas [formerly Tully] Street, on the southwest by Jardine Street, on the northwest by Chester Street, and on the northeast by the Catholic precinct. The land slopes slightly toward the southeast and the Douglas Street frontage, which has a low concrete fence extending in front of the church and church hall grounds. Several houses at the southwest end of the site, although church property, are not included in the heritage listing.
The principal structures on the site include: the Bishop's House [1891]; All Souls' and St Bartholomew's Cathedral Church (Quetta Memorial) [1893-1965]; the Church Hall [1902-03]; and the Rectory [1904]. The grounds contain a number of memorials, a bell tower, mature plantings, garden paths, stone-edged gardens and fencing.
The Church
The Quetta Memorial is a late 19th/early 20th century Gothic Revival style church in mass concrete, rendered to resemble stonework, with a 1960s front extension of concrete and fibrous cement sheeting. The whole rests on concrete foundations.
The chancel/sanctuary and the earliest section of the nave are housed under separate, steeply pitched, gabled roofs which have late 20th century corrugated iron roof cladding. Typical of this style of church design, the chancel/sanctuary roof is lower than that of the nave, but, unusually for an Anglican church, is at the northwest end of the building, such that the entrance to the nave is from the southeast, which faces Douglas Street, the main street in the town of Thursday Island. The earliest section of the nave is four bays in length, with a clerestory. The southeast gabled end of the nave has later sheeting, mimicking timber boarding, and replacing earlier weatherboards. The nave has a single-storeyed, skillion-roofed aisle along either side, in which the bays are articulated by concrete piers, and with pairs of lancet-shaped arched timber doors in each bay. The southwest aisle extends to incorporate a vestry, accessed off the chancel/sanctuary. Windows in the clerestory, sanctuary, chancel and at the ends of the aisles, are lancet-shaped and have fixed stained-glass memorial panels.
There is a 1960s addition to the front [southeast], which extends the nave and aisles by two and a half bays. It does not replicate the earlier structure, having a distinctive style and separate form, with a single roof, much less steeply pitched than that of the earlier nave, and considerably lower, extending across both nave and aisles. The side walls of this extension are of concrete with articulated bays. On either side, the bay closest to the original nave has a square headed timber door with a fixed stained glass panel [rectangular] above. There are casement windows in the next bay, on either side, again with a stained-glass panel above. The front of this extension is timber-framed with fibrous cement sheeting and cover-strips, and has a pair of centrally positioned, aluminium-framed glass entrance doors, with stained glass memorial windows either side. There is a small, cantilevered, ply-covered awning over the front doors, and above this are two round windows with fixed stained-glass panels. These both feature ship motifs. On either side of the entrance is a bank of clear-glass, hopper windows.
Internally, the early section of the nave has a high open ceiling, timber lined [unpainted], with exposed timber trusses. There is a fine timber ventilation frieze along the full length of the side walls of both the nave and the chancel/sanctuary, just beneath the roof. Interior walls are rendered to resemble stonework, and the floors are of concrete. Reflecting church liturgical practices of its era, the floor of the chancel is raised above that of the nave, and the floor of the sanctuary, at the far end of the chancel, is raised further. The high altar is placed here, three steps above the floor of the chancel. At the southeastern end of the chancel, projecting into the nave, is the low altar, which rests on a concrete platform raised two steps above the floor of the nave, but one step below the floor of the chancel. Both altars are constructed of local granite in a random rubble pattern. A pulpit of moulded concrete is located on the concrete platform in front of the chancel, on the southwest side. The nave has two rows of timber pews, and there are timber choir stalls in the chancel.
The early section of the nave is separated from the aisles by lancet-shaped concrete arches with plain mouldings, which support the roof structure. At the northwest end of the northeast aisle is a small chapel, separated form the remainder of the aisle by a low timber railing, and from the nave by a carved timber screen of indigenous design.
The 1960s extension has a much lower ceiling, clad with fibrous cement sheeting. The side concrete walls are rendered, but the front wall, which is timber framed, is lined with fibrous-cement sheeting. Square concrete pillars follow the line of the arches between the earlier nave and the aisles, and support the roof of this section. The extension floor is of concrete.
The church contains many relics and memorials associated with the wreck of the Quetta in 1890, with other Torres Strait shipwrecks, and with persons closely associated with the work of the church.
Quetta 'relics' include a lifebelt, washed ashore on Albany Island; and a porthole, thickly encrusted with coral growth, and the Quetta's stern riding light, both of which were salvaged from the wreck in 1906. A slab of timber on which the diocesan arms is carved and painted, the top of a small credence table, and a palm stand to the memory of Edgar Dawson, are made from Quetta timbers. In addition to the relics from the ship, many of the church furnishings are memorials given by families and friends of Quetta passengers, including a brass offeratory plate, lectern and plaques [including a memorial plaque to two young girls from the Lacy family, one of whom survived the wreck, and one of whom drowned]; and a window in memory of Alexander and Louisa Archer, who drowned in the wreck. There is a framed early photograph of the Quetta, and a 1911 plaque with the inscription:
This Cathedral was erected TO THE GLORY OF GOD and in memory of those lost in the wreck of the BI SS QUETTA 3484 tons which about 9.14pm on FRIDAY 28TH FEB. 1890, struck an unchartered rock in the ADOLPHUS CHANNEL whilst outbound from Brisbane to London, and although in calm waters and bright moonlight, sank within three minutes with the loss of 133 lives out of a total of 293 on board. Presented by GRS February 1911.
In addition, there is a brass plaque with the inscription:
This memorial stone was placed here by the Hon. John Douglas CMG Gov't Resident May 24th 1893 This Church was consecrated by the Right Rev CG Barlow Bishop of North Queensland Nov 12th 1893 as a memorial of those who were lost in the SS Quetta Feb 28th 1890 and as a thanksgiving offering for those who were saved.
In the church grounds west of the sanctuary/chancel is a steel frame supporting a ship's bell with the lettering QUETTA and the date 1881. Beneath is a stone plaque on the ground, with the inscription: This bell was rededicated on the centenary of the loss of the "RMS Quetta" 28th February 1990 I Anthony, Bishop of Carpentaria.
Other relics/memorials not associated with the Quetta include: two benches from the wreck of the Volga; a Union Jack taken down on Green Hill Fort at the proclamation of Federation on 1 January 1901; various memorial stained glass windows; and various memorial plaques, including those to the Hon John Douglas and Hugh Milman, both of whom served as Government Residents on Thursday Island. There is also a marble plaque in memory of over 300 persons who perished in a hurricane [cyclone] off Cape Melville on 5 March 1899, in which 73 vessels [mostly pearl-shell luggers] were wrecked or foundered.
Just inside the front entrance is a marble and timber font, installed in 1902, which is a memorial to two Congregational missionaries, Rev. James Chalmers and Rev. Oliver Tomkins, who were killed in British New Guinea in 1901. The stand has been refurbished.
In the front grounds of the church, just south of the main entrance, is a concrete memorial erected in 1961 to commemorate of the arrival of the Christian missionaries in 1871. The plaque on the front reads: Thank God for the first missionaries who, on 1st July 1871 at Darnley Island brought The Light of Christ to the Torres Straits. The concrete platform on which the obelisk and cross stands is in the shape of a small boat.
There is a steel-framed bell tower, resting on a concrete platform adjoining the northeast side of the church, which is likely to date from the 1960s when the front extension was constructed. The brass bell is understood to be that obtained from Townsville c1903.
The Church Hall
The Church Hall [Parish Institute] is located close to the Douglas Street frontage at the eastern end of the site. It is a substantial timber-framed building, rectangular in form, with verandahs to front and sides, resting on concrete stumps no more than 900mm high at the front, and almost at ground level at the rear. It has a high gabled roof, clad in corrugated iron, which extends in bungalow fashion over the side verandahs. The front gabled end has chamferboards and is decorated with a tall finial. The rear gabled end has weatherboards. The front verandah has a separate roof with a small centrally positioned gabled pediment. Both front and southwest verandahs have plain timber posts, but the northeast verandah is enclosed with later profiled iron sheeting and louvred windows. The front verandah has later timber rails. Access to the building is via wide timber steps to the southwest side verandah.
The southwest [side] and front walls have exposed stud framing and are lined with narrow, vertically-jointed, tongue-and-groove timber. The side wall has four pairs of French doors opening onto the verandahs. The front elevation has a centrally positioned main set of double doors with fanlight above, which would have been accessed originally from centrally positioned front steps. To either side of the front door is a pair of triple-paned casement windows, with the glass painted. The rear elevation has a small skillion-roofed extension with later additions.
Bishop's House
The Bishop's House is situated on higher ground behind the church hall, to the north of the church, facing southeast toward Douglas Street. It is a timber-framed residence, high-set on concrete stumps. The core of the building has an early high-pitched gabled roof, re-clad with modern corrugated iron, and has some surviving decorative detail in the gabled ends. Early surrounding verandahs have separate roofs, also re-clad, but have been enclosed and altered on several occasions with a variety of fabric [corrugated iron, fibrous-cement sheeting, glass louvres, sliding windows, casement windows, and timber boards], making the original form of the building difficult to read. There is no discernible surviving evidence of the original timber balustrading to the verandahs. The front enclosed verandah retains a centrally positioned entrance, and early timber portico with a small gabled roof [re-clad], but most of the decorative elements to the portico have been removed, and the original timber steps have been replaced by a spiral of concrete steps with an iron railing, at the side of the porch.
Attached to the enclosed back verandah is a sequence of small additions. There are two small, early, timber-framed, gable-roofed structures which were likely originally kitchen houses, one behind the other, and accessed through each other. The kitchen house adjoining the main building is the larger. These are now clad with fibrous cement sheeting, and it is not clear whether the original timber boarding [possibly single-skin] survives. Off the second kitchen house, at the rear, is a semi-open skillion -roofed laundry area, and attached to this, a small, later, skillion-roofed drying area with fibrous cement sheeting to balustrade height.
On the southwest side of the building one perimeter stump has been removed and a steel beam inserted, to provide car accommodation beneath the house. It is likely the house was accessed from Chester Street, at the rear, but the back garden is so overgrown that any driveway has been obscured.
Internally, the building has been altered substantially, and the early layout is no longer easily read. What appears originally to have comprised the front verandah, a central corridor, and two rooms on the northeast side of the core, is now one large enclosed space, used as a living room or lounge. Opening off this at the rear, in an enclosed space which was originally the back verandah, is the dining room. Much of the former back wall of the house, between the lounge and the dining room, has been removed to open up this space. The northeast side verandah has been enclosed, possibly at an early date but with later modifications, to create three bedrooms. The southwestern side of the house was modified in the 1960s to provide a suite of rooms for the Bishop, which included a main bedroom [which possibly was originally two smaller rooms], a sitting room and an office on the enclosed side verandah, and a bathroom on the rear enclosed verandah. The office has a private entrance from the southwest garden. There is also a small bedroom in the enclosed corner of the front verandah on this side of the house. This side verandah was also enclosed at an early period, but with a number of alterations since.
The first of the attached gable-roofed structures at the rear of the building is located off the dining room, and contains one large kitchen space and a toilet and external door at the southwest end. The smaller gable-roofed attached building beyond the kitchen contains a bathroom and a scullery, from which a door opens to the covered laundry and drying-area.
Most of the internal walls and ceilings in the house are lined with fibrous cement sheeting. However, the ceilings of what were formerly the northeast side and rear verandahs retain their original early timber lining in the form of wide, tongue-and-groove boards with a central double beading. Floors throughout appear to be early, with evidence of weathering on the underneath of the former verandah floorboards.
The house is situated within a very overgrown garden. The front garden has a curving concrete path lined with stone-edged garden beds, which serpentines from the front edge of the block to the front door. On most sides of the house there are concrete paths, some based on rubble rock foundations, and garden beds. To the northeast of the building is the former Bishop's Chapel, a small, high-set building with corrugated iron walls and roof. The date of construction has not been identified.
The Rectory
This is a high-set, timber framed building which has been clad with fibrous cement sheeting and a 'Colorbond' roof. The earlier form appears to have been a small bungalow with a front verandah, but this has been enclosed.
","history":"The Quetta Memorial Precinct on Thursday Island was established in the early 1890s. The principal buildings on the site are: The Bishop's House (Bishop's College), erected in 1891 as the residence for the first rector of the Church of England parish of Thursday Island, and which in 1900 became the residence of the first Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Carpentaria; All Souls and St Bartholomew's Cathderal Church and Quetta Memorial, erected in stages between 1893 and 1964/65; the Church Hall, erected in 1902-03 as the Parish Institute; and the Rectory, erected in 1904.
Thursday Island [Waiben] is located within the Prince of Wales [Muralag] group, just off the northwest tip of Cape York. The original inhabitants of the Muralag islands, the Kaurareg people, shared some cultural characteristics with Cape York Aborigines and spoke the same basic Australian language, Kala Lagaw Ya. However, they were a maritime people who lived from harvesting the sea, shifting camp sites regularly. Waiben had a restricted water supply, and it is thought that no permanent Kaurareg settlement was established there.
During the first half of the 19th century British shipping began to make regular use of Torres Strait, entering into a passing trade with the Islanders. Colonial occupation commenced in the 1860s and 1870s with the arrival of bêche-de-mer crews, pearl-shellers, Protestant missionaries from the southwestern Pacific, and government officials.
Queensland had no jurisdiction over the Torres Strait until its annexation in 1872 of the islands of the southern half of the Strait, a measure intended largely to protect Queensland interests in the pearl-shelling and bêche-de-mer fisheries in the Strait and along the Barrier Reef, and to regulate the employment of South Sea Islanders in these enterprises. At annexation, Torres Strait Islanders acquired the same official status as mainland Aborigines.
In 1877 the official Queensland government settlement at Somerset on Cape York [established 1864] was moved to the newly surveyed town of Port Kennedy on the southern side of Thursday Island. The new location provided a sheltered, deepwater anchorage, and was more centrally located along the main shipping route through the inner channel of Torres Strait - the principal trade route to Asia and the northern route to England. In 1879, at British Colonial Office direction, Queensland jurisdiction was extended to the islands of the northern half of the Torres Strait.
The first Christian missionaries to establish a presence in the Torres Strait were associated with the London Missionary Society. From 1871, as the first step in bringing Christianity to Papua/New Guinea, the Society began to land its Pacific Islander teachers [mostly Loyalty Islanders] in the Torres Strait - at Erub [Darnley], Tutu [Warrior] and Dauan [Mt Cornwallis] islands in July 1871, and at Mabuiag [Jervis], Moa [Banks], Massid [Yorke] and Saibai islands in 1872. These lay teachers brought an indigenised form of Protestantism to the Torres Strait, reinforced the status of the Strait's Pacific Islander maritime workers, and paved the way for European missionaries. From 1871 to the mid-1880s, Congregational missionary the Rev. Dr Samuel MacFarlane headed the western division of the London Missionary Society's New Guinea mission. He was based initially at Erub, then moved to Dauan, where he established a school for island boys.
Torres Strait Islanders now refer to the arrival of the Christian missionaries in the Torres Strait in July 1871 as 'the coming of the light', a cause for celebration and memorial:
For generations of Islanders the arrival of the missionaries has marked the divide between darkness and light. They brought deliverance from a life most preferred to forget, certain aspects of which had become anathema to their religion, and to their idea of themselves as a civilised people. . . . Just lately the Islanders have begun to look back on bipotaim [time prior to the coming of the missionaries in 1871] more favourably, and while they remain devoutly Christian, a growing number now seek in elements of the pre-colonial culture the means to reaffirm their identity as Torres Strait Islanders and so strengthen their sense of community.
By the mid-1880s nearly the whole of the Torres Strait Islander population was nominally Christian. French Catholic missionaries established a presence on Thursday Island in 1884-85, but Protestantism was well-established in the Torres Strait by this date.
In 1878, shortly after the establishment of permanent settlement on Thursday Island in 1877, the Church of England Diocese of North Queensland separated from the Diocese of Sydney, with the Right Rev. George Henry Stanton consecrated as the first Bishop. The new Diocese constituted a vast area of about 300,000 square miles, bounded on the west by the Queensland/South Australian border, on the south by latitude 22°S, on the east by the ocean, and encompassing the islands of the Torres Strait.
Anglican services on Thursday Island were held initially at the Court House, conducted by lay preachers and occasional visiting clergy. In 1885-86 a substantial block of land in the main street, bounded by Douglas [Tully], Jardine and Chester Streets, and adjacent to the Catholic missionaries, was vested in the Synod of the Diocese of North Queensland for church purposes. In April 1887 the first Anglican church committee on Thursday Island met to arrange for regular visits from a Church of England curate, and in June a church building fund was established. Little more was accomplished, however, until a tragic shipwreck in the Torres Strait in 1890 proved a catalyst for the construction of an Anglican church on Thursday Island.
On the night of 28 February 1890 the British mail and passenger ship SS Quetta struck an unchartered rock in the Adolphus Channel, off Albany Island, and sank with the loss of 133 lives. It remains one of Queensland's [and Australia's] worst maritime disasters. The ship was en route to Britain, and carried nearly 300 passengers, many of them from prominent Queensland families. Most of the Europeans on board were drowned, and the loss was felt throughout colonial Queensland.
Shortly after the accident a visiting Anglican priest, the Rev. AA Maclaren, conducted a burial service over the site of the wreck of the Quetta. At a meeting of the Thursday Island Church of England Committee on 10 April 1890, Rev. Maclaren proposed that members of the Anglican Church be invited to subscribe to the erection of a church on Thursday Island, as a memorial to those lost in the Quetta. The idea was put to a general meeting of Thursday Island's Anglican congregation, held at the courthouse on 20 July 1890 and chaired by Bishop Stanton, where it was resolved:
That in the opinion of this meeting, it is desirable that a Church and Parsonage be erected on Thursday Island; the Church to be a fitting memorial of those who were lost in the wreck of the 'Quetta' on the night of February the 28th last, and that the Church Committee take the necessary steps for carrying this into effect.
Some discussion ensued as to whether the memorial should be a Union Church, but only an Anglican church could be erected on Church of England property.
The first step was to attract a resident minister. In 1891 a rectory was built from locally raised subscriptions. Situated on the high ground of the Church of England property, at the northeast end of the site, the rectory was highset on timber stumps, of exposed timber stud-framing, lined with deep chamferboards, and surrounded by verandahs. It had a centrally positioned front door, and french doors with fanlights opening onto the front verandah. Once the rectory was completed, Rev. Maitland Woods was installed as the first incumbent clergyman of the parish of Thursday Island, and canvassing began for funds for construction of a Memorial Church - a durable edifice, of artistic proportions, worthy of its commemorative intentions. Nearly £1600 was subscribed at this first appeal, from all over Australia and from Britain, and not restricted to Anglicans. Thursday Island's Presbyterians were particularly supportive of the project.
After considering the cost of brick or stone, the Church Building Committee decided that the memorial church should be constructed in concrete, and commissioned a design from John Hingeston Buckeridge, Brisbane's Anglican diocesan architect from February 1887 until 1902. Buckeridge designed about 60 churches in southern Queensland and later church and mission buildings in British New Guinea. Like many Queensland architects, he was declared bankrupt in 1892, following the collapse of the building industry during the depression of the early 1890s, and moved from Brisbane to Sydney. He prepared the design for the Quetta Memorial Church in 1892-93, most likely from Sydney. The original design was for a Gothic Revival style building with chancel, nave of 5 bays in length, aisles, bell tower spire, vestries, and side entrances. However, like many Queensland churches, the Quetta Memorial Church was constructed in stages, as funds became available, and was never completed as originally designed.
The Hon. John Douglas, Government Resident at Thursday Island and a staunch supporter of the project, laid the foundation stone on 24 May 1893. Six months later, on 12 November 1893, the completed sanctuary/chancel [built to slightly smaller dimensions than the original design] was consecrated by the Right Rev. Dr Barlow, the second Bishop of North Queensland, as All Souls Quetta Memorial Church. At this time Douglas made an appeal for the Bishop to permit clergymen of other Protestant denominations to conduct services in the church, but the Bishop made no formal statement on this.
By mid-1895 the chancel and four-fifths of the nave had been completed. The concrete side arches to the nave had been constructed, but were clad externally with temporary timber boarding, until the aisles could be built. A skillion-roofed timber vestry had been erected on the western side of the church, off the chancel. There was no debt on the building, but the Church Building Committee was anxious to complete Buckeridge's design, and a second appeal for funds was launched in 1895. At this time the church was promoted as a focus for missionary work in the Diocese of North Queensland, and already attracted numbers of Japanese and South Sea Islanders - groups prominent in the Torres Strait pearl-shell industry. At the same time the Bishop of North Queensland, Dr Barlow, was working toward the establishment of a new far northern diocese, the centre of which was likely to be at Thursday Island - in which case the Quetta Memorial Church would become a Cathedral.
It appears that by 1901 the aisles had been constructed, but in timber, which was a temporary measure. These had lancet windows along the sides, as in Buckeridge's original design. The building seated about 250 persons, in wooden chairs rather than pews, was already a place of pilgrimage, and something of a tourist attraction. A number of relics from the wreck of the Quetta were displayed, and there were various memorials to persons who had died in, or had been saved from, the Quetta, as well as relics or memorials to other Torres Strait shipwrecks. The association of the place with the Torres Strait, and with the sea, was very strong.
In the second half of the 1890s Bishop Barlow travelled to England, where he raised £10,000 as a minimum endowment for a new diocese, which produced a small annual income of £300. On 3 August 1900, the Diocese of Carpentaria was created, encompassing the Torres Strait, Cape York Peninsula, the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria and the whole of the Northern Territory. In Queensland the boundary of the new diocese extended to south of Port Douglas, with Cairns remaining in the Diocese of North Queensland. There was no large population centre in the whole of the new diocese. Access was principally by sea, and so Thursday Island, centrally located on a major shipping route, was chosen as the seat of the Bishop. The Ven. Gilbert White, Archdeacon of North Queensland, was consecrated as the first Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Carpentaria, at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1900, and was installed at Thursday Island on 18 November 1900. At this time the All Souls' Quetta Memorial Church became the All Souls' Cathedral Church and Quetta Memorial.
Thursday Island parishioners agreed that the Bishop should be appointed Dean of the Cathedral, with a Sub-Dean to be appointed to take charge of parochial matters. The cathedral was also to be used for parochial purposes. The existing rectory was to be taken over by the Diocese as the See House, or Bishop's House, and a new residence was to be provided for the clergyman of the Thursday Island parish.
The new Bishop had a formidable task ahead, and little funding. Fearing that it would be difficult to attract clergy to the Diocese, he proposed to establish a Diocesan theological training college on Thursday Island. This was made possible following an undertaking by Lord Beauchamp, Bishop of New Guinea, to support three students at the Theological Training College for three years, from 1 January 1901. The Primate of Australia and others contributed towards a fourth studentship. The new theological college was known as Bishop's College, and was established in the See House on Thursday Island, which in late 1900-early 1901 was enlarged to 11 rooms, providing accommodation for 4 college students, as well as the Bishop and the Thursday Island rector. It is likely that the side and rear verandahs were first enclosed at this stage, and there was an ecclesiastical arched timber balustrade to the front verandah by this date. Bishop White travelled widely through his diocese, and the See House on Thursday Island was used primarily as the Bishop's College. Lord Beauchamp later renewed his support, but the college closed in 1907 following the establishment of a parochial theological college at Nundah.
In 1901 Bishop White also attempted to establish a School for Girls in the Japanese Schoolroom at Thursday Island. A number of Japanese were very active in the Church of England on Thursday Island in the late 1890s. By January 1901 some Anglican services were being conducted in Japanese [through an interpreter], and the Japanese community had erected a small building known as the Japanese Schoolroom on Church of England property. Little is known about this building, but it seems to have been used mainly for conducting evening English classes. The building also served on occasions as a venue for Church meetings. Whether or not the venue was the deterrent, the Girls' School was not supported, and closed within a few months.
In the early 1900s both the Bishop and the local parish worked to improve the Church of England premises on Thursday Island. In the period 1901-04 a parish hall and a new rectory were erected, the whole of the church ground was fenced, a belltower was built, renovations were made to the Japanese Schoolroom, and additions were made to the South Sea Home - both the latter established on Church property in the 1890s.
By January 1902, with Bishop White's encouragement, the local parish had decided to erect a Parish Institute, a purpose-designed church hall in which to hold parochial meetings, social gatherings, church society meetings, a Sunday School, etc. The construction of this hall was considered essential to the expansion of the work of the parish. Funds were raised in 1902, tenders were called in October that year, and the foundation stone was laid by Hon. John Douglas, Government Resident and a Church of England warden, on 8 November 1902. The building was of timber construction, and measured 50ft by 25ft, with a 9ft deep verandah along front and sides. It was designed by John Hamilton Park, of Cairns, who had trained as an architect under FDG Stanley in the 1880s, and who in 1899 was foreman for the construction of military works on Thursday Island, where he also practised as an architect for a short period. The building was erected by contractors Byres and Young, of Thursday Island, and was officially opened by Bishop White on 21 January 1903.
Other ground improvements during the first half of 1903 included the construction of a belfry tower (with a bell purchased from Townsville), and the enclosure of the Cathedral grounds with a picket fence of 'gothic design' along Douglas Street, and wire netting at the rear of the property. The Japanese also raised funds to improve their school.
In October 1903 a deputation of prominent Thursday Island citizens, including the Hon. John Douglas, petitioned Bishop White to allow visiting clergymen of other denominations to preach at the Cathedral. The claim was made on the grounds that other denominations, particularly the Presbyterians, had contributed significantly to the construction of the Quetta Memorial Church in the 1890s. The Bishop deliberated over this, but having studied early minutes, it was clear that the original intention had been to erect an Anglican church, and in December 1903 he refused the petition. In February 1904 the Bishop modified his position by offering visiting ministers the use of the parish institute, but he would not be moved on the issue of use of the Cathedral.
In 1904 a new timber rectory was built in the church grounds, completed to accommodate a new minister and his wife who arrived on Thursday Island in September. Also, by October 1904, the South Sea Home, apparently situated on the Church of England property, had been extended.
A description of the Anglican community on Thursday Island in 1905 reveals a multi-cultural community, whose economy and culture were connected closely with the sea:
The congregation of the cathedral is an interesting one, comprising soldiers from the garrison, pearl-shellers, visitors form ships, South Sea Island and Japanese communicants, in addition to the white population, and often a detachment of native Christians from Mobiag or one of the other Torres Straits islands. Special prayer is offered daily for 'those engaged in fishing, travelling, or doing their business in the great waters,' and few strangers visit Thursday Island without a pilgrimage to the cathedral and its relics of the dangers of the deep.
Following the death of the Hon. John Douglas in 1904, it was decided to complete in concrete the northeast aisle of the cathedral as the Douglas Memorial Chapel, to serve for daily services and devotional meetings. Plans were commissioned from JH Buckeridge, but fund raising for this project took many years. The Chapel was finally opened on St Peter's Day, 29 June 1913. It contained a memorial stained glass window executed by Kayll and Reed of Leeds, of an elderly St John [in the likeness of John Douglas] at Patmos, which was donated by Torres Strait Islanders. Almost immediately, fundraising began for completion of the southwest aisle, which was opened on 20 June 1915. The new aisles deviated from Buckeridge's 1892 design, in that they now had rows of paired, lancet-shaped arched doors along the sides, which when opened, made the cathedral extremely light and cool.
A number of memorials were placed in the cathedral in the early years of the 20th century. These included:
# a marble plaque in memory of over 300 persons lost during the cyclone of 5 March 1899, which decimated the pearl-shell fleet and light-station staff off the east coast of Cape York Peninsula.
# a marble font dedicated on 9 November 1902 to the London Missionary Society missionaries Rev. James Chalmers and Rev. Oliver Tomkins, who were killed in British New Guinea in 1901. Rev. Chalmers had worked for many years in New Guinea, was well known in the Torres Strait and at Thursday Island, and the subscription for the memorial font was raised from amongst all sectors of the Thursday Island community, not just Anglicans. The original marble columns were replaced in 1973.
# a memorial brass tablet in honour of Hugh Milman, unveiled on 7 October 1913:
IN MEMORY OF HUGH MILMAN, Government Resident at Thursday Island, who served Queensland faithfully for thirty years. He was kind of heart, true to his friends, and an earnest supporter of this Church, which he served as Parochial Councillor and Churchwarden. He died September 23rd 1911.
# two memorial stained glass windows, ordered from England, dedicated in November 1915. One was in memory of Deaconess Buchanan, well known in northern Queensland at the time; the other was in memory of Mr and Mrs Alexander Archer, who were drowned in the Quetta. Mr Archer was an inspector with the Bank of New South Wales in Brisbane, and the memorial was subscribed to by senior members of the Bank staff.
Late in 1914 the London Missionary Society approached the Bishop of Carpentaria with a request that the Diocese take over the Society's Torres Strait Mission. The offer was accepted, and the hand-over was formalised in March 1915. On 1 July 1915 the Rev JJE Done was appointed to take charge of the Mission, establishing his headquarters on Mabuiag Island. In September a second priest was appointed to St Paul's on Moa Island [established c1906] and in 1917 a third priest was stationed at Darnley Island, taking over Darnley, Murray, Stephens and Massig [Yorke] islands. As Torres Strait Islanders converted from Congregational to Anglican practices, All Souls' Cathedral Church and Quetta Memorial became increasingly the focus of religious life in the Torres Strait.
During the Second World War most of the civilian population of Thursday Island was evacuated to the mainland, and the Island became a garrison town. During this period services continued to be held at the Cathedral, and oral history suggests that the church hall was requisitioned for military purposes.
The 1960s was a period of change within the Diocese of Carpentaria. The front of the cathedral was extended in 1964-65, but not to Buckeridge's original concept. In 1965 St Bartholomew was declared the patron saint of the Cathedral, which became known as The Cathedral Church of All Souls and St Bartholomew (Quetta Memorial). In 1968 the Diocese of Northern Territory separated from the Diocese of Carpentaria, and around this time the Bishop's House on Thursday Island was renovated, with substantial internal changes.
Memorials placed in the Cathedral in the late 20th century include a timber screen of very fine traditional Islander work, carved by Abia Ingui of Boigu Island, which was placed between the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the low altar in 1989. Vibrant stained glass windows, designed by artist Oliver Cowley, were placed in the clerestory in the 1980s. In 1989 the Cathedral was re-roofed.
In 1996, after nearly a century, the Diocese of Carpentaria was re-absorbed by the Diocese of North Queensland. At this time the Bishop's House on Thursday Island was vacated. The Cathedral still provides an important focus for the Anglican parishes of the Torres Strait, which today comprise Bamaga, Coconut Island, Darnley & Stephen Islands, Kubin & Moa Islands, Mabuiag, Murray Island, Saibai & Dauan Islands, Thursday Island, and Yorke Island.
All Souls' and St Bartholomew's Cathedral Church (Quetta Memorial) remains a focus not only for Christian worship and ceremony in the Torres Strait, but also for Torres Strait Islander identity, and plays a leadership role in the community. The ceremonial signing of the Torres Strait Regional Agreement, along with a special church service, were celebrated here on 1 July 1994, a date co-inciding with the annual celebration of the 'Coming of the Light' [the arrival of Christian missionaries to the Strait on 1 July 1871]. A strong spirituality and sense of self-determination are considered by many Torres Strait Islanders to be the two pillars of local society: if one is missing, the community is 'unbalanced'.
","criteria":"The Quetta Memorial Precinct, Thursday Island, is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland history. As one of the earliest church precincts established in the Torres Strait, it provides evidence of the introduction of Christianity in the region, of the impact this has had on the lives of the people of the Torres Strait, and of the development of the town of Port Kennedy [later Thursday Island] as the bureaucratic and commercial centre of the region. As a memorial to the lives lost and saved in the wreck of the Quetta in 1890, the Cathedral in particular is illustrative of the nature of early non-indigenous settlement in northern Queensland, and the particular hazards of shipping at a period prior to the development of a comprehensive system of navigational aids along the Queensland coast. As the See House for the Diocese of Carpentaria for approximately 96 years, the Bishop's House has strong historical significance. It is important for its early association with the Bishop's College, the first far northern Anglican theological college, which was accommodated in the Bishop's House from 1901 to 1907.
|The Cathedral, with its relics and memorials to those lost in the Quetta and other Torres Strait shipwrecks, provides a unique historical record of these events. It is the only known memorial church in Queensland associated with maritime disasters.
|The Anglican Cathedral Precinct on Thursday Island remains a substantially intact church complex, with Bishop's House [1891], Cathedral [1893-1964], Parish Institute [1902-03] and Rectory [1904] extant within the original extent of the church grounds, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type. The Cathedral and church hall [Parish Institute] remain particularly fine examples of their type. The Cathedral is an excellent illustration of the imposition in an exotic location of the late 19th century colonial fashion for erecting Gothic Revival style church buildings, but adapted to local conditions [including climate, lack of local raw resources, the cost of importing materials, and the fledgling nature of the local parish] - as illustrated by the use of concrete rather than stone or brick, the provision of timber ventilation friezes along the top of the side walls of both nave and sanctuary/chancel, the modification of the architect's original design to include doors along the length of the aisles, and the construction in stages. The interior of the cathedral is highly intact, and contains many memorials. The late 19th/early 20th century sections of the cathedral are important in illustrating the range of the ecclesiastical work of architect John Hingeston Buckeridge, who was the Brisbane Anglican Diocesan architect from 1887 to 1902.
|The Quetta Memorial Precinct is an integral historical and aesthetic element of the Thursday Island townscape, and makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of Douglas Street. The cathedral and church hall make the strongest visual impact in the street. The interior of the cathedral produces a strong aesthetic experience, engendered by the high spaces, the arcaded aisles, the fine timber ceiling and exposed roof trusses, the stained glass memorial windows, the dark-stained timber pews and other church furnishings, and the number and variety of memorials.
|The Cathedral, Church Hall and Bishop's House are of social, cultural and spiritual importance to the people of the Torres Strait, and particularly to the Anglican community, for its association with the expansion of Christianity in the region. The Cathedral has been, and still is, a focus for worship for generations of Thursday Islanders, and is considered the 'mother church' and focus for Anglican religious activity in the Torres Strait. The Cathedral contains many relics and memorials associated with shipwrecks and with the sea, not just with the Quetta, and is intimately associated with Torres Strait culture and its identification with the sea. Many Torres Strait Islanders consider the Anglican precinct to be a sacred place, in the same sense as the original Kaurareg people would have regarded places as 'sacred'. The Cathedral has a special association also with the people of Queensland, as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the Quetta shipwreck of 28 February 1890, one of Queensland's [and Australia's] worst maritime disasters. From its inception, the Quetta Memorial has functioned as a place of pilgrimage and as a tourist attraction, has been visited by many prominent people, and is well known in Queensland. The Cathedral has acquired a mystique engendered by its dramatic origins, its memorial status, its longevity, and its tropical location. The Church Hall has been the focus of social and cultural activities on Thursday Island for close to a century, and the Bishop's House, which accommodated successive Bishops of the Diocese of Carpentaria from 1900 to 1996, is regarded by Thursday Islanders as a holy place.
|The precinct has a special association with the missionary work of the Church of England in Queensland [and in Australia]. Constructed initially by non-indigenous interests as a memorial to white colonialism, the Quetta Memorial was quickly transformed into the hub and focus of Christian life within the Torres Strait, and fostered the spread of Christianity through the islands. The life-histories of generations of Islanders are encompassed within this church, and the first indigenous Torres Strait Islander Anglican ministers were ordained here. The place is illustrative of the leadership role played by the Church in the Torres Strait.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"} ]}