Квинсленд аймағындағы Торрес бұғазы аралы және қаласы

Island in Queensland, Australia

Thursday Island is also the name of the town in the south and west of the island, formerly known as Port Kennedy, and also the name of the locality which contains the island within the Shire of Torres. The town of Rose Hill (known as Abednego until 7 September 1991) is located on the north eastern tip of the island
In the , Thursday Island had a population of 2,805 people.

Thursday Island has an area of about The highest point on Thursday Island, standing at above sea level, is Milman Hill, a World War II defence facility. While Thursday Island is within the Shire of Torres and is the administrative centre for that shire, it is also the administrative and commercial centre of the local government area of Torres Strait Island Region despite not being part of that local government area.

The island has been populated for thousands of years by the Torres Strait Islanders, though archeological evidence on Badu, further north in Torres Strait, suggests that the area has been inhabited from before the end of the last Ice Age. The archaeology from Badu, Pulu, Saibai and Mer shows that Melanesian occupation started around 2,600 years ago (see Kalaw Lagaw Ya). In 1848 a hydrographic survey of the area was conducted by Captain Owen Stanley of the Royal Navy, the commander of HMS Rattlesnake. He named this island Friday Island and another island Thursday Island (presumably reflecting the day of the week on which he named them). However, in June 1855 Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy (the Admiralty Hydrographer) decided to switch the names around so the present day Thursday Island would appear on the left of present day Friday Island on a map. The town that developed on the island was also called Port Kennedy, but on 1 June 1962 the town was renamed Thursday Island.

A lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1884, attracting workers from around Asia, including Japan, Malaya and India, seeking their fortune. The Japanese community was in part indentured divers and boat hands who returned to Japan after a period of service and some longer term residents who were active in boat building and in the ownership of luggers for hire—which was illegal but bypassed by leases through third parties back to other Japanese, a practice called "dummying". Additionally, many south Pacific Islanders worked in the industry, with some originally imported against their will, in a practice known as blackbirding. While the pearling industry has declined in importance, the mix of cultures is evident to this day. The pearling industry centred on the harvesting of pearl shell, which was used mainly to make shirt buttons. The local pearl oyster is Golden Lip Oyster, Pinctada maxima.

Trochus shell was also gathered using specialized boats. Most shell was exported as the raw material—to a London based market. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew. The boats used were very graceful two masted luggers. In shallow water free diving was used while in deeper water diver's dress, or an abbreviated form of it, with a surface air supply was used. In good times there were three divers to a lugger, a stern diver, one midships, and one diver off the bow. A manual air compressor was used. It looked like a yard wide cube with two large wheels mounted one on each side. For part of the fleet that operated further from Thursday Island, larger vessels, typically schooners were used as mother ships to the luggers. Shell was usually opened on the mother vessels rather than on the luggers, in order to secure any pearls found. The waters of the Straits are murky and visibility was generally very poor. Even though dive depths were not great, except at the Darnley Deep (near Darnley or Erub Island), which was 40 fathoms (240 feet), attacks of the bends were common and deaths frequent.

The Thursday Island Parish of the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns) was established in 1884. with Thursday Island, via an undersea cable. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Thursday Island was a regular stop for vessels trading between the east coast of Australia and Southeast Asia. A shipping disaster to a vessel in this service occurred in 1890 when struck an uncharted reef in the Strait and sank in five minutes with the loss of over 130 lives. The Anglican Church on Thursday Island built shortly afterwards was named the Quetta All Souls Memorial Cathedral in memory of the event. Today the church is called All Souls and St Bartholomew Church. Cyclone Mahina, which hit Bathurst Bay, southeast of Thursday Island in 1899, wrecked the pearling fleet sheltering there, with huge losses of vessels and lives.

Local pearling declined steadily up to World War II, partly through competition from a Japanese based fleet which did not use local resources or personnel. In the 1950s plastic buttons imitating pearl supplanted much of the demand for shell. The Thursday Island Customs House opened in 1938 at 2 Victoria Parade
During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. January 1942 saw the evacuation of civilians from the island. This industry still exists around the island today. In the 1970s, there was also an attempt to farm green turtles. From 1900 to 1996 the Quetta Memorial Church on the island was the cathedral church of the large Diocese of Carpentaria which included North Queensland, the Islands of the Torres Strait and, to 1968, Northern Territory.

At the , Thursday Island had a population of 2,610.

The Island is one of the two bases for the Torres Straits Pilots, a cooperative owned and run by qualified Master Mariners who pilot ships through the Straits and down to Cairns. This is a necessary service because navigation through the area is tricky due to the extensive reef systems. The island has the area hospital and courts, is the regional centre for higher education, a centre for some research organisations and is the administrative base for the local, state and federal governments. Banking and phones are available. Thursday Island is only in part self sufficient for water, some being piped from the adjacent island. It has two wind turbines which generate some of its electricity requirement. The economy of the island is dependent on its role as an administrative centre and is supported by pearling and fishing, as well as a fast developing tourism industry, with perhaps the most famous tourists being novelist Somerset Maugham and Banjo Paterson, and the most numerous being day trippers from the cruise ships that call into the island each year.

Thursday Island has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification: Aw) with hot daytime temperatures and warm nighttime temperatures year round. The wet season typically runs from December through mid May though occasionally rainfall occurs during the dry season.

Torres Strait Creole is the dominant language spoken on Thursday Island by the Islanders, followed by Kalaw Lagaw Ya, commonly called Mabuiag (pronounced Mobyag) by many, although English is also spoken. The indigenous language is Kaiwaligau Ya, another dialect of Kalaw Lagaw Ya, otherwise known as Kowrareg, (or more correctly Kauraraigau Ya, the name used by the people in the mid to late 1800s).

Thursday Island has number of services open to the community, including a sporting complex, gym, public library as well as ANZAC park and Ken Brown Oval. There is a community pharmacy, general store, butcher, bank and many other essential services. The Shire of Torres operates Ngulaig Meta Municipal public library at 121 Douglas Street. The current library facility opened in 2015. Sacred Heart Catholic Church is in Douglas Street. It is within the Thursday Island Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns.

Tagai State College is a government primary and secondary (Early Childhood 12) school for boys and girls that operates 17 campuses throughout the Torres Strait, including two on Thursday Island. The Thursday Island primary school campus (Early Childhood 6) is at 31 Hargrave Street The Thursday Island secondary school campus (7 12) is at 21 Aplin Road In 2017, the school across all location had a total enrolment of 1,554 students with 168 teachers (165 full time equivalent) and 198 non teaching staff (142 full time equivalent). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 103 students with 12 teachers (9 full time equivalent) and 13 non teaching staff (9 full time equivalent). The Torres Strait Campus of the Tropical North Queensland TAFE Institute is located on the island next to the Tagai State College.