Torres Strait Islands in a day

Stepping onto Horn Island Wharf in the Torres Strait and past a sign warning of a recent crocodile sighting, we come across a group of children casting fishing lines into cerulean waters.

Eager to show off their catch, they nudge us towards a plastic bucket flip-flopping with fish.

“Coral trout … Crab.” One child is holding up the captives in turn, before there’s a shriek, as pincer claw grips pinkie finger.

The offending crustacean is hastily shaken back into the bucket as the rest of the children giggle.

They continue threading bait onto hooks, the wind tousling their curls, as the boat ferrying us to Thursday Island pulls away.

The encounter wasn’t an official part of the new A Strait Day tour to the Torres Strait Islands – at least, I don’t think so.

Still, it captured a slice of life in this remote archipelago, where tourists remain enough of a novelty to allow for spontaneous, unscripted moments, and where nature is beautiful and abundant, but sometimes with an undercurrent of danger.

Travel to the Torres Strait has long been possible, but it isn’t necessarily straightforward, with limited transport and accommodation options, and all the logistical frustrations associated with executing an itinerary around “island time”.

The new tour offers a taste of the region, from the comfort of a hotel room in Cairns.

Before sunrise, I’d left the Crystalbrook Flynn and boarded a Skytrans Dash 8 for the two-hour journey north to what Fraser Nai, co-founder of tour operator Strait Experience and a Traditional Owner on Masig Island, calls “the last frontier for tourism in Australia”.

“It’s the only part of Australia where you will see two Indigenous Peoples (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) living on their own country,” Nai says.

A Strait Day weaves together existing attractions and experiences offered by local guides into a single seamless day out, taking visitors into the land belonging to the Kaurareg people, who populate the “inner islands” located off the tip of Cape York Peninsula.

The flight takes us over the dense, mist-shrouded jungle of the Daintree Rainforest, the vast Coral Sea, then finally to the aqua waters of the Torres Strait, which are dotted with something like 300 islands (estimates vary), most of them uninhabited.

The plane banks as we descend towards Horn Island (Ngurapai) with views of nearby Thursday Island (Waibene) and Prince of Wales Island (Muralag) through the windows.

Geographically, Horn Island is closer to Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby than it is to Cairns. Striding out onto the tarmac and into the steamy air feels like entering a different country, with no passport or visa required.

You will need sunscreen and lots of water though, says John Palmer, Nai’s business partner, a non-Indigenous resident of Thursday Island. “You’re three degrees from the Equator,” Palmer adds.

Once on the ground, our larger group is split into two. Members of my group climb aboard an air-conditioned coach for the trip to Horn Island Wharf, from where we will take the fifteen-minute ferry ride to Thursday Island.

Once on “TI”, as the locals call it, our first stop is at Island Stars Cultural Experience, where artist Joey Laifoo, originally from Badu Island, trains young people in traditional dance and storytelling and conducts performances.

Here, we’re introduced to traditional instruments such as the warup (wooden drum) and educated on ancient Ailan Kastom (island custom) under the shade of a thoroughly modern marquee.

Laifoo explains that the first dance centres on the role the four winds play in the turning of the Torres Strait seasons. “(They) tell us when to hunt, what type of birds are flying … when fruit is fruiting, when to harvest, when to plant,” Laifoo says.

The next 45 minutes involves hypnotic chants, relentless percussion, performers in grass fibre skirts and the deep sonorous wailing of a blown conch shell. I don’t realise it then, but some of these infectious rhythms will stay with me for days to come.

From there, we’re collected by Dirk Laifoo – who has been running taxi tours here for the past decade and happens to be Joey’s uncle.

We pass beach almond and coconut trees as he points out local landmarks, including the Torres Strait Hotel, which is “Australia’s top pub, geographically” and the sombre Quetta Memorial Precinct, built to honour 133 lives lost in the shipwreck of the RMS Quetta in 1890.

There’s also time to explore Green Hill Fort, sprawling set of ramparts complete with three fearsome-looking breech-loading guns which, improbably, look out over peaceful island vistas.

The fortifications were built between 1891 and 1893 to help defend Australia against a possible Russian invasion and later served as a signals and wireless station and ammunition store during World War II.

Our next stop is the Gab Titui Cultural Centre, a contemporary art gallery and “keeping place” for cultural artefacts such as traditional headdresses. The attached shop sells jewellery, sculpture, lino prints, clothing, books, woven baskets and more.

We browse and buy, before being ushered outside for lunch, where several tables are loaded with local delicacies. Before we dig in, dignitaries deliver welcome speeches, as four teenage girls in bright floral dresses furiously flick tea towels to keep the flies at bay.

The delectable island feast prepared by Joey Naifoo’s family includes sweet roasted yam, lime-cured fish (namas), damper cooked in banana leaves and plump, locally caught crayfish. When I comment on the dinner-plate size of the crayfish, Nai says, “Those were the small ones.”

Full stomachs, high humidity and temperatures nudging the 30-degree mark induce a tropical torpor among members of the group as we board the ferry for the return journey to Horn Island.

But waiting for us on the other side, behind the wheel of another air-conditioned bus, is Vanessa Seekee, whose enthusiasm for Horn Island’s history reinvigorates us all.

Seekee came to the Torres Strait as a teacher almost 30 years ago and married the son of a local pearl diver.

Together, they established the Torres Strait Heritage Museum, an old-fashioned cabinet of curiosities which reserves its brightest spotlights for the island’s twin historical threads – as a pearl diving hub from the 1860s and a strategic outpost during World War II.

The museum houses more than 500 items – shells, wooden carvings, artwork, newspaper clippings, photographs, diaries, documents, wartime uniforms and a pearl divers’ helmet.

Seekee then takes us on the “In their steps” tour, which is based on her own research and visits key military sites, including slit trenches, gun pits and plane crash sites.

“(WWII) was a very important time and I thought it was sad that it was being forgotten,” she says.

Not long before Seekee returns us to Horn Island Airport for our flight back to Cairns, we stop at King Point Reserve to inspect an anti-aircraft battery and an equally-photographed sign saying, “No cutting up of turtle and dugong permitted in this recreational area”.

“(Torres Shire Council) don’t want to encourage crocs into the beach area, as it’s a popular spot for the community and visitors,” Seekee says.

We watch from a distance as a small girl and her father stroll across the vast expanse of sand, collecting shells, skipping stones, and skirting danger.

IN THE KNOW

The A Strait Day tour runs out of Cairns on the first Saturday of every month from April to September. Tours are capped at 32 people. The cost is $1399 per person. www.straitexperience.com.au

Room rates at the five-star Crystalbrook Flynn start at $277 for two people.

Denise Cullen was a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland.

This story originally appeared in The Australian (Travel and Luxury).