Torres Strait & Great Barrier Reef: Islands, Reefs & Traditions

Step aboard Paspaley Pearl on Thursday Island, Waiben to the Kuarareg traditional owners, and affectionately known as TI, which lies about 30km from the northern tip of Australia, Cape York in far north Queensland. Once the headquarters of a pearling industry with global reach, TI supplied more than half the world’s pearls by the 1890s and attracted workers from all over Asia and the Pacific, becoming a vibrant, cultural crossroads in the process, which is still evident today. This evening, as we cruise 60km north to Badu Island, there will be a briefing from your expedition team about what lies ahead on this exploration of the islands and rich maritime cultures that make the Torres Strait so unlike anywhere else in the world.

Passing a shoreline dominated by mangroves, we will step ashore at the home to the Badulgal people, where island communities navigated by the stars and ocean currents long before the existence of European charts and maritime instruments. Freehold title was returned to the Badulgal traditional owners in 2014 in recognition of a connection to Country that long predates the pearling era in which Badu Island was once the domain of pearl luggers.

Masig Island, formerly Yorke Island, is a coral cay barely three kilometres long in the central group of Torres Strait islands, and rises just three metres above sea level at high tide.

It is also home to the Masigalgal people, who welcome us ashore and invite us to learn about and understand the island’s significance in the trade networks that have long criss crossed the Torres Strait.

Possession Island (Bedanug) is ostensibly where Lieutenant James Cook, arriving on the HMB Endeavour, climbed to its highest point and claimed the entire east coast of Australia for Great Britain. The Kaurareg traditional owners have their own, very different account of this event, as documented by the Australian Museum in consultation with them, which we will learn more about on our visit. Later, we will cross to Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia, where the Australian continent ends and the Torres Strait begins.

Over two days, we will explore the northern Great Barrier Reef’s outer barriers and ribbon reefs, where long, narrow formations unique to this area support abundant and extraordinarily biodiverse coral gardens. These coral channels attract pelagic marine life, animals primarily found in the open ocean, making for some of the most vibrant snorkelling sites in the entire Great Barrier Reef.

Home to the Dingaal people and the main landmass within Lizard Island National Park, Lizard Island (Jiigurru, meaning stingray) rises 359 metres above sea level and was named after the yellow spotted monitor Varanus panoptes. It is also home to more than 40 species of seabirds and an abundance of marine life, thanks to its location more than 25km from mainland Australia. Swim and snorkel at Clam Gardens off Watson’s Bay, where giant clams (Tridacna gigas), the largest bivalve species on Earth, nestle among colourful coral beds in shallow waters as clear as a swimming pool.

This morning, you will disembark Paspaley Pearl after eight days of exploring island communities, cultural crossroads and the remote reaches of the Great Barrier Reef, with a deeper knowledge of the people and places that continue to shape these remarkable environments.

Itineraries are subject to change.