Flensing deck, Tangalooma whaling station, 1960. Slides by Richard Hopkins, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Copyright © Richard Hopkins and the Centre for the Government of Queensland, 2010

The relationship between Queenslanders and whales is a fascinating example of the rapid shift in government and public interests and expectations about the environment. 

Pearling luggers, Thursday Island, 1959. Slides by Lionel Bevis, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Copyright © Lionel Bevis and Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

The pearling industry, 1965-66, Torres Strait. Slides by Elna Kerswell, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Copyright © Elna Kerswell and Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Thursday Island cemetery showing Japanese graves. Collection of Regina Ganter

Collection of Regina Ganter

Pearl shell in Mrs Muller's store in Cooktown, Collection of Regina Ganter

Collection of Regina Ganter

Pearl shell yield graph, 1890-1941. The yield per boat stands in an inverse relationship to the number of diving boats engaged in the pearling industry at Thursday Island, strongly suggesting that the resource was under stress from overharvesting, and that the best means of maximising profit would have been to limit the harvest. Collection of Regina Ganter

Collection of Regina Ganter

Soon after the discovery of pearl-shell, the Torres Strait became dotted with pearl-shell and trepang stations, and Queensland extended its boundaries in 1879 in order to benefit from the exponentially growing marine industry. Redrawn map from Regina Ganter, The pearl-shellers of Torres Strait, 1994

From Regina Ganter, The pearl-shellers of Torres Strait, 1994

Pearl swimming diving with goggles, 1917. The divers usually made such goggles from tortoiseshell. Collection of Regina Ganter

In 1917 some 550 Torres Strait Islanders worked on pearling boats, about half of them on community-owned ‘company boats’, typically employed as swimming divers. The community lugger scheme had been started by philanthropic effort in 1897 to free indigenous people from dependence on large and exploitative companies. For many years it was jointly conducted by the Papuan Industries Limited and the Queensland Government’s Department of Native Affairs, and became very popular among Torres Strait Islanders, who used the luggers which they were able to purchase through this scheme for transport, visiting, and various kinds of subsistence fishing. It was for this very reason that the Department considered it an economic failure and continued to tighten its grip over the scheme, until it could no longer be said that the communities were owning the luggers. This led to a ‘lugger strike’ against the paternalism of the Department in 1936, and to separate legislation for Torres Strait in 1939 (separate from mainland Aborigines) with some limited self-government.  

Collection of Regina Ganter

Pearl diving deckhands, c1950. While the diver is submerged the deckhands oversee the air supply and the tender communicates with the diver through pulls on the lifeline. Don Boota, Joe Guivarra and Sammy Bowder on the Phyllis, c1950. Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

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