Dangerous Passage – A Maritime History of the Torres Straits

The reef-strewn passage between the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea remains the most hazardous of all the major Straits in the world. It is 270 kilometres long and only 150 kilometres wide but contains over 274 islands, islets, coral reefs and coral cays and its waters are full of potential hazards separated by narrow and often dangerous channels.

The Torres Strait lies at the boundary between two ocean basins, the Coral Sea and the Arafura Sea, with sea levels to the east typically higher than those to the west, leading to strong and unpredictable currents. Depending on the time of the year, massive amounts of water, which are being transferred between the Pacific and Indian Oceans surge through the Torres Strait creating hazards for shipping.

It was the early navigators such as Torres, Cook and Bligh who first found a route through the Strait. Trade inevitably follows human settlement and soon after the arrival of the British to settle the convict colony at Sydney Cove in 1788, shipmasters were looking for a route from New South Wales to Asian ports. The safest route was to sail around the northern coast of New Guinea. However, a passage through the narrow, treacherous Torres Strait would save six weeks on a voyage from the new British penal colony to Asia and it was Flinders and King who further contributed to the charting of this dangerous passage.

This history will include accounts of murder, mayhem and mutiny, of disastrous shipwrecks and desperate voyages of survival in open boats and of hurricanes and headhunting. However, it was not until the completion of detailed hydrographic surveys undertaken by the British Admiralty in the 1840s, the advent of steamships and the introduction of Torres Strait Pilots that the Torres Strait could ultimately be used as a major shipping route.