15th June 2026: up early to move our Prado and caravan to the guest car park and meet our driver at 6.45am. He was a member of staff at Punsand Bay - a Chilean who had been working there for 4 days! However he drove the roads well to Seisia to drop us off at the ferry to Thursday Island, a trip that took about an hour on calm aquamarine waters! 

We decided on a coffee and croissant and met a nice couple Ellen & John from Brampton Beach visiting their son John and his wife Eliana who live on TI with their 2 boys. John told us about an historical tour run on Horn Is called “In their footsteps” run by Vanessa Seekee , which we will do.

We dropped our packs at the Jardine Motel and then went  the Gab Titui Cultural Centre to learn something of TI culture and history. There was an exhibition of photographs by a Japanese geographer and anthropologist Professor George Ohshima 50 years ago when his team did an extensive cultural and geographical survey of the all of Torres Strait Islands. 

We then walked up Green Hill for a great view of the town and to see 3 canons present since the late 19th century, but never actually used. The museum there looked like it was permanently closed.

We had walked around many of the streets and came to an Office of Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade and went in. There we met the Head of Mission, who told us his job was to work out any issues concerning the Treaty between PNG and Australia regarding the Torres Straight Islands. He had just one other locally engaged staff member to assist him. 

We returned to our coffee shop MA.KAi for a lunch of chicken and avocado pie (Nic ) and vegetable crustless pie(me).

We rested for a while in our motel room then walked along the rest of the foreshore to the hospital where we spoke to a couple of nurses - both FIFO- one from Melbourne and one from New Zealand. The cost of these staffing arrangements must be very high.

We had dinner at the Torres Hotel (The top hotel in Australia)- Coral trout with chips and salad.

Seisia Wharf






White-breasted Wood Swallow on a wire










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