Thursday Island, Australia 11/21/2025

 

Thursday Island is located between the northernmost tip of Australia to the south and Papua New Guinea to the North.  In this photo, it is located at the bottom center. 

The Viking Venus is anchored a 30 to 45-minute tender ride from Thursday Island. 

Thursday Island now gets 12 to 13 cruise ships a year.  Probably all smaller ships like Viking because the island is not equipped to handle more people.

Tender being offloaded to shuttle people to Thursday Island. 

At the Thursday Island dock. 

There was a sidewalk on the foreshore that had information written on it.  I couldn't get a lot of it due to all the feet obscuring the words.   The Islanders call the strait, Zenadh Kes.

Wikipedia tells us "The Torres Strait Islander flag is a symbol of unity and identity for the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. Designed by Bernard Namok in 1992, the flag features a white Dhari (headdress) at its center, representing the culture of the Torres Strait Islanders. The flag's colors include green for the land, blue for the sea, and black for the people, illustrating their deep connections with the sea, islands, and sky of the Torres Strait. The five-pointed white star symbolizes peace and the navigational importance of stars to the seafaring people of the Torres Strait."

We spent a while at the vendors on the foreshore before being led to a cultural presentation 

The presenter told us about living on the island of the Torres Strait and the flag. 

An elder also speaks.  This hall is cooled with five heat pumps and several large fans, but it was still too hot for me in there.  The heat pumps are a new addition.  It would have been stifling in there without them.  

Next a musical ensemble came on stage and talked about the instruments. 

Then two burly guys came out and did a few dances for us. 

We checked out a few shops before walking back to the dock.

A tender arrived and we started loading. 

The canopies we had been standing under as we waited for the tender to arrive.  We sat on top of the tender so we could have a breeze on the way back to the ship.  

The ship appears as if it had been hiding behind that small island.

Another tender heading to Thursday Island. 

Look at those rain clouds. 

It was a race to see if we could get on the ship before it started raining on us. 

The door at the waterline midship is where we will unload from the tender. 

Crew waiting to tie the tender to the ship so we can disembark.  We didn't get rained on.  Though that might have felt good.