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Erub (Darnley Island)

Introduction

Erub (also known as Darnley Island) is situated in the eastern island group of Torres Strait approximately 260km north of Cape York and 60km south of Papua New Guinea. The closest major service centre to this remote island is Thursday Island which is approximately 220km away.

Erub is the traditional name for the island and the Torres Strait Islander people of Erub are known as the Erubam Le[1]. They are of Melanesian origin and lived in village communities and followed traditional patterns of hunting, fishing, agriculture and trade for many thousands of years before contact was made with the first European visitors to the region[2]. They also maintained complex trade practices with nearby Papua New Guinea. Intricate kinship relationships existed and social behaviour was guided by long held rituals and customs[3]. Many of these customs and practices continue today.

History of Erub (Darnley Island)[4]

European contact

In September 1792, Captain William Bligh, in charge of the British Navy ships Providence and Assistant, entered Torres Strait from the east and anchored off Erub. Men from the island rowed out in canoes to meet the ships. Violent skirmishes broke out between Bligh’s crew and the Islanders, but later goods were exchanged in peace. Bligh named Erub, Darnley Island in honour of the Earl of Darnley, on 14 September 1792[5]. The following year, the merchant vessel Shah Hormuzear and the whaler Chesterfield anchored off Erub. Six sailors were killed by the Islanders when they were discovered polluting the island’s only supply of fresh water. In retaliation, Captains Alt and Bampton ordered the destruction of huts, canoes and gardens on Erub and several Islanders were killed[6].

In the early 1860s, beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers) and pearling boats began working the reefs of Torres Strait. Charles Edwards established a beche-de-mer station at Erub in 1865, outside the control of the Queensland Government. By 1871, several pearling operators were using Erub as a base for harvesting pearl shells and beche-de-mer[7]. During the 1870s, South Sea Islander, Filipino and Malay divers and sea crew settled on Erub and intermarried with Torres Strait Islander families. Increased contact with the outside world brought new diseases to Erub and, in 1875, an outbreak of measles caused many deaths on the island. Captain Pennefather visited Erub in 1879 and noted that the population of Erub was in decline[8].

In June 1879, the Queensland Government passed the Queensland Coast Islands Act, allowing it to claim the outer Torres Strait Islands including Erub. The Act enabled the Queensland Government to control and regulate the beche-de-mer and pearling industries, which previously had operated outside its jurisdiction[9].

On 1 July 1871, a party of London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries led by the Reverend Samuel McFarlane and the Reverend A W Murray arrived at Kemus on the northern coastline of Erub. The arrival of the LMS Missionaries has come to be known in the Torres Strait as ‘the Coming of the Light.’ The first Christian service was conducted on the island after the elder Dabad convinced the Erubam Le to allow the missionaries to stay. The LMS appointed two South Sea Islander lay pastors Gucheng and Mataika to work on Erub. The first school in Torres Strait was opened by the LMS at Erub on 24 August 1873. A church was built and paid for by the Islanders at Erub in 1899[10].

In 1904, the LMS missionary Reverend Walker formed Papuan Industries Limited (PIL), a philanthropic business scheme designed to promote ‘independent native enterprise’ by encouraging Islanders to co-operatively rent or purchase their own pearl luggers. The ‘company boats’, were used to harvest pearl shells and beche-de-mer, which was sold and distributed by PIL. Islanders from Erub purchased their first company boat in 1906. Company boats provided Islanders with income and a sense of community pride and also improved transport and communication between the islands[11].

Over time, the Queensland Government began to exert more influence on the lives of Torres Strait Islander people. John Douglas, the government resident at Thursday Island, initially shielded Torres Strait Islanders from the controlling provisions of the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. After Douglas passed away in 1904, the administration that followed began to assert control over Torres Strait Islander labour and savings accounts and imposed restrictions on Islander movement to and from the mainland[12].

In November 1912, the Queensland Government gazetted 930 acres at Erub as an Aboriginal reserve. Many other Torres Strait Islands were gazetted as Aboriginal reserves at the same time[13]. By 1918, a Protector of Aboriginals had been appointed to Thursday Island and, during the 1920s and 1930s, racial legislation was strictly applied to Torres Strait Islanders, enabling the government to remove Islanders to reserves and mission across Queensland. Documents indicate that 11 people were removed from Erub Island to Palm Island between 1919 and 1933[14].

In 1930, Papuan Industries Limited was taken over by the Queensland Government. It was re-named the Aboriginal Industries Board and managed by the Aboriginal Protector on Thursday Island[15]. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Queensland Government improved roads and drainage on Erub and installed various facilities including a new school, a medical aid post and an Island Industry Board Store[16].

In 1936, around 70% of the Torres Strait Islander workforce went on strike in the first organised challenge against government authority made by Torres Strait Islanders. The nine-month strike was an expression of Islanders’ anger and resentment at increasing government control of their livelihoods. The strike was a protest against government interference in wages, trade and commerce and also called for the lifting of evening curfews, the removal of the permit system for inter-island travel, and the recognition of the Islanders’ right to recruit their own boat crews. According to George Mye, the leader of the strike at Erub was James Idagi (also known as James Williams)[17].

The strike produced a number of significant reforms and innovations. Unpopular local Protector J D McLean was removed, and replaced by Cornelius O’Leary. O’Leary established a system of regular consultations with elected Islander council representatives. The new island councils were given a degree of autonomy, including control over local island police and courts[18].

On 23 August 1937, O’Leary convened the first Inter Islander Councillors Conference at Masig. Representatives from 14 Torres Strait communities attended. Kailu George and Tat Thaiday represented Erub at the conference. After lengthy discussions, unpopular bylaws, including the evening curfews, were cancelled and a new code of local representation was agreed upon[19]. In 1939, the Queensland Government passed the Torres Strait Islanders Act 1939, which incorporated many of the recommendations discussed at the conference. A key section of the new Act officially recognised Torres Strait Islanders as a separate people from Aboriginal Australians[20].

During World War Two, the Australian Government recruited Torres Strait Islander men to serve in the armed forces. Enlisted men from Erub and other island communities formed the Torres Strait Light Infantry. While the Torres Strait Light Infantry were respected as soldiers, they only received one third of the pay given to white Australian servicemen. On 31 December 1943, members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry went on strike calling for equal pay and equal rights. The Australian government agreed to increase their pay to two thirds the level received by white servicemen. Full back pay was offered in compensation to the Torres Strait servicemen by the Australian Government in the 1980s[21]. After World War Two, the pearling industry declined across Torres Strait and Islanders were permitted to work and settle on Thursday Island and the Australian mainland.

After gaining its independence from Australia in 1975, Papua New Guinea asserted its right to the islands and waters of the Torres Straits. In December 1978, a treaty was signed by the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments that described the boundaries between the two countries and the use of the sea area by both parties[22]. The Torres Strait Treaty, which commenced operation in February of 1985, contains special provision for free movement (without passports or visas) between both countries[23]. Free movement between communities applies to traditional activities such as fishing, trading and family gatherings which occur in a specifically created Protected Zone and nearby areas[24].

Local government and Deed of Grant in Trust community

On 30 March 1985, the Erub community elected 3 councillors to constitute an autonomous Darnley Island Council established under the Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984. The Act conferred local government-type powers and responsibilities upon Torres Strait Islander councils for the first time. The council area, previously an Aboriginal reserve held by the Queensland Government, was transferred to the trusteeship of the council under a Deed of Grant in Trust on 21 October 1985. Darnley Island Council officially changed its name to Erub Island Council on 24 April 2002[25].

In 2007, the Local Government Reform Commission recommended that the 15 Torres Strait Island councils be abolished and the Torres Strait Island Regional Council (TSIRC) be established in their place. In elections conducted under the Local Government Act 1993 on 15 March 2008, members of the 15 communities comprising the TSIRC local government area each voted for a local councillor and a mayor to constitute a council consisting of 15 councillors plus a mayor.

End notes

  1. A successful Native Title determination was ruled in favour of Erubam Le people (Erubam Le [Darnley Islanders] #1) by the Federal Court of Australia on 24 May 2005 for Darnley Island; Mye on behalf of the Erubam Le v State of Queensland [2004] FCA 1573.
  2. R E Johannes & J W MacFarlane, Traditional Fishing in the Torres Strait Islands (CSIRO, 1991) 97-100, 103-106.
  3. Queensland, State Library of Queensland, Erub Community Profile (2007) (unpublished).
  4. Herein entitled Erub.
  5. Lt G Tobin, Captain Bligh’s Second Chance. An Eyewitness Account of his Return to the South Seas (University of NSW Press, Sydney, 2007) 150-152; M Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, (W Bulmer and Co, London, 1814); Queensland, above n 3; N Sharp, The Stars Of Tagai, The Torres Strait Islanders (Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1993) 19-20.
  6. S Mullins, Torres Strait: A History of Colonial Occupation and Culture Contact 1864-1897 (Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton,1994) 18-20; J Singe, The Torres Strait, People and History (University of Queensland Press, St Lucia,1979) 23-25; R Ganter, The Pearl Shellers of Torres Strait (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne,1994) 37.
  7. Ganter, above n 6, 19-21, 243-245.
  8. Sharp, above n 5, 26, 43; Queensland State Archives, Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence, COL/A288, 1880/460, Captain Pennefather’s report dated 19 December 1879.
  9. Mullins, above n 6, 139-161.
  10. Sharp, above n 5, 99-103; Mullins, above n 6, 121, 133-134.
  11. Ganter, above n 6, 68-75; Sharp, above n 5, 158-161.
  12. J Beckett, Torres Strait Islanders: Custom and Colonialism (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987) 45-47.
  13. Queensland, Queensland Government Gazette, vol.99, no.138 (1912) 1330.
  14. Queensland, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait and Multicultural Affairs, Community and Personal Histories Removals Database.
  15. Ganter, above n 6, 86-88; Sharp, above n 5, 161-164. With the introduction of the Torres Strait Islanders Act 1939, the Aboriginal Industries Board was renamed the Islander Industries Board.
  16. Queensland, Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1925 (1926) 8; Queensland, Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1929 (1930) 8; Queensland, Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1931 (1932) 9; Queensland, Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1932 (1933) 13.
  17. Sharp, above n 5, 181-186, 278; Beckett, above n 12, 54.
  18. Beckett, above n 12, 54-55.
  19. Sharp, above n 5, 210-214; Queensland State Archives, A/3941 Minutes of Torres Strait Councillors Conference held at Yorke Island 23-25 August 1937.
  20. Queensland, Annual Report of the Department of Native Affairs for 1939 (1940) 1; Sharp, above n 5, 214-216.
  21. Beckett, above n 12, 64-65; Australian War Memorial website, Wartime Issue 12 ‘One Ilan Man’, http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/12/article.
  22. For further information see Australia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/torres-strait/Pages/the-torres-strait-treaty; Sharp, 226-227.
  23. Under Art. 11.
  24. See also Art 12.
  25. Queensland, Annual Report of Department of Community Services for 1986 (1987) 3; Queensland, Annual Report of the Department of Community Services for 1987 (1988) 29.
Last updated:
21 March 2018
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